Mattie Ford August, longtime teacher, dies at 75
July 28, 2010
By JOE SIMNACHER / The Dallas Morning News
Mattie Ford August had a special quality for giving nursing care, and she
used those skills to help students and children with hearing disabilities.
She taught at state schools in Arkansas, Kansas and Texas before beginning
her 23-year career working with deaf students in the Dallas Independent
School District.
Mrs. August, 75, died July 21 of complications of Alzheimer’s disease at
Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.
Services will be at 11 a.m. today at New Hope Baptist Church in Dallas,
where she was an active member. Graveside services will be at Restland
Memorial Park.
Mrs. August had a passion for children since she was a nursing student on a
five-year work-study program at the Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee
University, said her husband, Taylor August of Dallas.
“She worked on the children’s ward, so she had … affection for children
… particularly with children with disabilities,” Mr. August said.
Mrs. August’s nursing talents were “part of her calling,” he said. “It was
also manifested through our children and grandchildren. She was one of the
most selfless people that I’ve known.”
Mrs. August was born in Whiteville, N.C., where she graduated from high
school. She attended the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and Philander-Smith
College in Little Rock , Ark., before she received her bachelor’s degree
from the University of Arkansas. She later earned a master’s degree from the
University of Kansas.
She taught blind and deaf students at state schools – moving with her
husband as he was transferred to positions with the U.S. Department of
Education. In 1966, they moved to Austin. She taught at the Texas State
School for the Deaf until moving in 1971 to Dallas, where she worked for
three years the Callier Hearing and Speech Center.
Mrs. August next taught at a state school in Olathe, Kan., before she and
her husband returned to Dallas in 1979.
Back in Dallas, she taught deaf students at Samuell High School and became a
district parent adviser with the Callier center, now Callier Center at
UT-Dallas.
“She worked with deaf and hard-of-hearing infants,” her husband said.
Federal law requires school districts to identify infants with disabilities
and help the parents prepare for their education, Mr. August said.
She retired from DISD in 2002. Mrs. August was a member of Delta Sigma Theta
sorority, the Dallas chapter of Links Inc. and Circle-Lets Inc.
In addition to her husband, Mrs. August is survived by two sons, Taylor D.
August II of Winterville, N.C., and Wilbert E. August of Dallas; a daughter,
Marsha August Jones of The Colony; a sister, Virginia James of Charleston,
S.C.; 10 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Memorials may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association.
Source: