Thelma Anderson

Originally from Crawford, Anderson was born April 6, 1941, to Wayne and Thelma Anderson, the second son of three in his family.

A 1959 Crawford High graduate, he worked for a year on the farm and in a furniture plant in McGregor."I decided at that point I needed to get into college," he said.

So in the summer of 1960, he found himself one of only nine young men living on the campus of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, a traditionally female school.After three years there, he said, he was able to transfer his 91 hours of degree work to Baylor University, where he finished in August 1964.

"So you can see, August was a big month for me," he said.He celebrated the 40th anniversary of his university graduation this past month and the 40th anniversary of his marriage to Betty O'Hair, of Lampasas, on Aug. 22.They met at Mary Hardin-Baylor; she did her student teaching at Belton Junior High, while he did his at West Junior High.

For the next two years, he recalled, he had to carpool to work as a teacher at Nolan Junior High in Killeen ISD.He moved to Belton ISD in 1966, where he put his math major and chemistry minor to work as a math specialist in the junior high.

Not content to merely teach, Anderson also started studies at Texas A&M University in fall 1967 and earned his master's degree two years later.He continued at A&M to earn his administrative certification, which enabled him to be named assistant principal at Belton Junior High in January 1969.About 18 months later, he was snagged to be assistant principal at Belton High.

He served as the Belton High principal from January 1976 through the 1983 school year and, during his tenure, was in charge of building a new high school for that community.

Anderson was wooed away for a year as a high school principal in Blooming Grove, but he returned to Belton in 1984 for the sake of his children.A son, Lee, born in 1970; and a daughter, Jana, born in 1973, wanted to graduate from Belton schools, he said.Their mother, a teacher who also worked in Temple and Salado before retiring from the profession in December 2000, took a hiatus from 1970-79 while they were young, he said.