LETTER TO THE EDITOR
To the Editor, I read with much interest your article about Pennington Funeral Home. It brought back many fond memories. In 1967, I visited what was then Southwest Texas College, to see if they would accept me into a Master’s program. While at the registrar’s office, I told them I would need to find a job and a place to live before I could confirm my attendance.
Imagine my surprise when about a week later I received a phone call from a Mrs. Albright at Pennington Funeral Home. She offered me a job which included a small monthly payment and utilities paid, rent-free apartment. I started working for the Albrights in January of 1968, when I enrolled for my Master’s degree. I did not find out until a few weeks later that Ms. Edra hired college students to help them so they could get their degree.
What makes my story a little different is the fact I lived in Searcy, Arkansas, at the time and had never heard of the Albrights or Pennington Funeral Home. When she called, she had never seen me. Evidently someone in the registrar’s office knew her and gave her my name. She called and offered me the job before she ever saw me.
The apartment I lived in was the one above the funeral home in which Bill had been raised. I worked for Pennington’s for two years until I completed my graduate program, and was continually surprised by the compassion and generosity of this precious couple. My last semester, I had to do a practicum at a rehab hospital, and had no hours, except weekends, to work. I went and told Ms. Edra the situation and her words to me were: “You’re here to get your degree. You do what you have to do. We’ll give you work hours on the week- ends, so you can stay here until you graduate.”
I don’t know if she ever knew how many students she helped complete their degree, just by giving them the part-time job they needed in order to stay in school. I will always be indebted to the Albrights, and will never forget the education I received, in addition to my studies in college, by working in a funeral home.
It was an experience that impacted me greatly, made possible by the care and generosity of three wonderful people, Edra and Willard Albright and Edra’s son, Bill Pennington. The world could use a lot more people like them. Lynn Wilson Gonzales, Texas
