Obituary - Betty Hooks
Ribault's Dean of Girls
Betty Hooks
Our Dean of Girls
Mary Elizabeth 'Betty' Hooks, 90, of Jacksonville passed away September 21, 2010. Born in Leesburg, Georgia, July 26, 1920 she moved to Florida in 1926. Miss Hooks attended Florida State College for Women where she played basketball and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Education in 1944. She began working in the Duval County school system that year as a physical education teacher. She earned her Masters of Education from the University of Florida while continuing to work in Duval County school system and retired as Dean of Girls at Ribault High School in 1982. Miss Hooks was preceded in death by her parents Mr. and Mrs. William Walter Hooks, and brothers Richard Russell Hooks and William Walter Hooks, Jr. She is survived by her sister-in-law Lillian B. Hooks of Gainesville, nephew R. Clegg Hooks of Tallahassee, great niece, Breanne Hooks, great nephew, Ryan Hooks and great great niece, Anna Hooks. A graveside service will be held today, Saturday, September 25, 2010 at 11:00 am at Oaklawn Cemetery. Arrangements by Hardage-Giddens Funeral Home, 4115 Hendricks Ave., Jacksonville, FL. Please Sign the Guestbook @ Jacksonville.com
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The following "Opinion" was published in the Florida Times Union on October 9, 2010 regarding our beloved Miss Hooks. We thought this would be of interest to all Ribault alumni. Our Miss Hooks was truly a Ribault legend and we were fortunate to have had her in charge of the female students during our tenure at Ribault Senior High School. The writer, "Linda M. Turner" is none other than our other legendary faculty member, "Miss Wolf" who taught advanced math at Ribault.
In memoriam: Another great educator passes
Florida Times Union, page B-6
October 9, 2010
She was not so regarded that a band was named after her, nor was she so famous as to make the national news, but the death of Miss Betty Hooks, 90, at a Gainesville nursing home the day after Leonard Skinner passed deserved more attention than the short obituary in The Times-Union. In many ways, they were a lot alike. Both devoted most of their adult lives to education. "Hooksie," as her closest friends lovingly called her, started out as a physical education teacher and, during the 1960s was the dean of girls at Ribault High School.
She was responsible for dispensing discipline to the young ladies who violated rules, and she did this in a swift and sometimes painful manner that commanded instant fear but later respect. Back in those days, paddling habitual offenders was allowed, and rumor has it that if a young lady eligible for the customary three swats was wearing sufficient petticoats to diminish the pain of the punishment, Miss Hooks would lift layers of underwear and, when the correct posture was assumed, the wooden paddle would fly.
Miss Hooks liked to extend her discipline to the faculty, also. I remember receiving a couple of "invitations" to her office. Several times I was reprimanded (but not paddled) for allowing a student to attend my class when, seeing his name on the official absentee list, I knew that student was supposed to be absent the entire day. Another time I was chastised for writing a clever (but inappropriate to her) comment on a student's report card after he finally succeeded in earning an A in my advanced math class.
There is one difference between Leonard Skinner and Betty Hooks that saddens me. On a Saturday morning, right after I read about the Skinner funeral that 250 people attended, I drove to Oaklawn Cemetery in plenty of time to secure a seat in the shade at the graveside memorial for Miss Hooks. During the 20-minute service, I counted no more than a dozen mourners. Surely the scant attendance must have been due to the lateness of the obituary that appeared the very same day of the funeral.
LINDA M. TURNER,
adjunct professor,
Jacksonville
