| Hughes, Arkansas School Faculty Memorial |
| Ara Ruby (Baldridge) Sanders June 19, 1915 – May 18, 2010 English Tenure: 1950? |
| Mrs. Sanders and her twin sister Ava, also a Hughes teacher, were born June 19, 1915 in Pearson, Cleburne County, Arkansas, daughters of Harvey and Myrtle (Webb) Baldridge. She graduated from Arkansas State Teachers College (Now UCA) in 1936, and she appears in the 1940 Census for Hughes as a public school teacher. Her obituary reveals that she taught English. She married in 1940 to Frank Sanders, a coach at Hughes High School, and during their fifty-eight years of marriage, forty of those years were spent as teacher or administrator in the public schools of Arkansas. As a couple they were career teachers in Florida and Alabama. Mrs. Sanders’ last position was as head librarian at Sneed College in Albertville, Alabama. During her teaching career, she expanded her education, earning Masters Degrees at both George Peabody College in Nashville and the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. She died May 18, 2010 in Nashville, interment in Pearson Cemetery, Pearson, Cleburne County, Arkansas. The last line of her obituary reads: “Her family and a host of former students and colleagues mourn her passing but celebrate her life of service.” |
