Page two of that day’s Gadsden Times had a picture of F. Lee Bailey
and colleagues for an article on the upcoming ruling on Patty Hearst’s
mental competence. I was just over ten years old on this day and
remember those tumultuous times, my primary concern being the frequent
interruptions of Hawaii Five-O and other important cultural events for
another CBS News Special Report.
Page one was dominated by state and local issues, and included an
article on a local Spanish teacher, Dora Gene Hill, who was
representing the state of Alabama in a national teacher of the year
contest. The article went on to describe the many accomplishments of
Mrs. Hill and her students from the time she became the first high
school Russian teacher in Alabama back in 1960.
Mrs. Hill, always referred to as “Dora Gene” by a friend (as long as
she was out of earshot), was my Latin I teacher in my senior year of
high school some seven years after this article was published. That
was a rather late point to start Latin, but I was assured that it
would be a great experience. And it was! She was a ball of energy,
moving around the room constantly, speaking very quickly, and
magically imparting a great deal of knowledge. A number of us from
that class have medals from the National Latin Exam to prove it.
A rather unfortunate memory of Mrs. Hill was the look she gave a
friend and me as we returned to the Civic Center Sheraton in downtown
Birmingham with ill-gotten pizza. We were with a school group at the
state Latin convention, and against the rules laid down by Mrs. Hill
we left the hotel to bring back food for our group. Aside from the
stupidity of leaving the hotel, we did not understand the distinction
between 11th Avenue North and 11th Avenue South and suffered more than
sufficient trials and tribulations even before being caught red-handed
back at the hotel.
I found out from my high school band Facebook group that Mrs. Hill
died yesterday. The obituary I read had no mention of family or
accomplishments, but I know she is survived by thousands of students
over decades of devoted teaching, and among the most important lessons
learned by those students was the meaning of excellence and devotion,
seen all too rarely at the level practiced by Mrs. Hill.