Dr. Grady Early, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, taught math and computer science at Texas State University for 29 years, serving briefly as interim chair of the newly-formed Computer Science department. After retirement, Early began researching his family history and gained some familiarity with various research tools: ancestry, familysearch, newspapers, San Marcos Record archives, findagrave and many more. This made it easy for him to segue into the histories of non-family members, which is how he began to write a story about Southwest Texas Normal in San Marcos, also known as San Marcos Normal, which is now Texas State University. This series highlighted the first staff at Southwest Texas Normal, but he felt he would be remiss in concentrating on the faculty without considering the students who fell under their sway. While he declined to do bios on them all, one student, because of her personal background and her success as a music educator, stands out — Elfleda.
Elfleda was born in 1888 and was the eldest of four children born to Elbridge Gerry Littlejohn Jr. and Mary Helen Cullens.
Her siblings were Harry Fendley, born in 1890, Sarah Helen, born in 1892, and Liska, born in 1894.
