Yates Dedicates Library to 100-Year-Old Former Faculty Member
September 14, 2005
One hundred years is a long time to wait for a birthday present, but for Hazel Hainsworth Young, the honor was definitely worth it.
Young, who turned 100-years-old on September 12, is the last living member of the original faculty at Yates High School, and on Tuesday, September 13, the school named its library in her honor.
“I am thrilled,” said Young, who attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony with her daughter, Braeburn Elementary School Assistant Principal Marianne Young Walker. “I love anything to do with Jack Yates High School, and I know a lot of young people who graduated from here succeeded because they came up reading.”
Young encouraged students to take advantage of the library whenever they could. “I always told students that reading was the best way to travel,” she said. “With a book, you can move from one place to another without ever leaving your chair.”
A number of HISD administrators and employees were on hand at the celebration to congratulate Young and wish her a happy birthday, including Yates Principal George August and Superintendent of Schools Abelardo Saavedra.
“I want to put her long life and her remarkable career in perspective,” said Dr. Saavedra at the dedication. “Yesterday, Ms. Young celebrated her 100th birthday. That means that when HISD was founded in 1923, she was already in college. A graduate of what is now Booker T. Washington High School, Ms. Young joined the faculty at Jack Yates the moment the paint was dry. She taught here from 1926, when the doors first opened, until 1956, when she became Yates’ Dean of Girls, and she retired from HISD in 1972.”
The superintendent also commended Young for her commitment to HISD schools and specifically, to Yates. “She never severed her connection to this school district or to this historic campus,” he said, “and just this year, Ms. Young led the effort to recruit Yates alumni, Texas Southern University students, and others to volunteer as mentors to current Yates students. By naming this school’s library in her honor, we are making sure that her lifetime of dedication and service to this community and its young people will never be forgotten.”
Before concluding the ceremony, Regina Carrington, president of the Alpha Kappa Omega Chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, along with Gwendolyn Brinkley and Elnora Flewellen of the AKA Education and Charitable Foundation, presented the Principal George August with a check for $12,000 for the purchase of library supplies and equipment. They also presented Young with a copy of Black Texas Women: 150 Years of Trial and Triumph, by Winegarten, Humphrey and Werden, for the school library. The book was published by the University of Texas press in 1995 and makes a reference to her. Young joined Alpha Kappa Alpha in 1922 and cofounded the Houston chapter. Prentice-Hall also donated 500 books written either by or about African Americans to the newly renamed library.
http://www.houstonisd.org/HISD/porta...329432,00.html