Award-winning Texas Journalist Regina L. Burns Graduates with a Master’s in History from UNT12/17/2024 Burns Fulfilled the Order to ‘Go Back to Graduate School’ from her Late ACU Professor and Kept her Pledge to Texas Historian Dr. W. Marvin Dulaney Video courtesy of Michele Thatcher; thank you, Michele!When I entered the UNT Coliseum on December 15, 2024, with the other graduating master’s and doctoral students, my hands flew up in a wave of victory and praise! My face rearranged into a massive smile, reaching from sea to shining sea under my cap.Video courtesy of Calvin Wilson; thank you, Calvin!After I heard “Regina Lynn Burns,” my feet flew across the stage.Video courtesy of Melinda Knott; thank you, Melinda!Video courtesy of DeeJay Whiting; thank you, DeeJay!By the time I reunited with my friends and family, they showered me with yellow roses, captured precious memories on their cellphones, and drowned me with their love, so much love. I felt overjoyed because I overcame challenges and distractions to accomplish this achievement. Sharing my commencement with my family and friends made it even more important.I knew this one thing: I had accomplished something that no one else in my immediate family had done. I had earned two master’s degrees, the first in journalism administration from the University of Memphis under the leadership of professors emeriti Dr. Dan Lattimore and Dr. David Arant, and now this Master of Arts in History from the University of North Texas. Dr. Marler told me "there aren't enough African American historians" and "you can make a difference in your community." These degrees will help me do that.Paying Tribute to Tyler Barber College Chain GraduatesFurther, this summer, I wrote a master’s thesis, “Texas African American Millionaire Henry Miller Morgan’s Social Justice Crusade: Tyler Barber College Chain, 1933-1974” about the nation’s first African American barber college chain. The UNT Toulouse Graduate School is processing it for publication in 2025.Next StepsMoreover, from the top of my cap to the bottom of my academic regalia, I promised myself another achievement: One day, by the grace of God, I will write a book about Tyler Barber College Chain, whose history and achievement of training 80 percent of the nation's African American barbers during Jim Crow segregation, has been largely ignored.MoreoverAs I left UNT, I felt excited and gave thanks to all of my friends, supporters, academic mentors, professors at both the University of Texas at Arlington and UNT, and family for their support during this life-changing academic experience.
|
In April 2024, Dr. Doug Mendenhall, ACU Associate Professor and Journalist in Residence, invited me to design the course, which I themed “Tyler Barber College Chain: Texas African American History and Journalism.” | Mendenhall was the faculty liaison and provided the support essential to this successful experience. |
I drew upon my research about Tyler Barber College Chain, founded in Tyler, Texas, during the Great Depression. The late Texas African American millionaire, barber, businessman, and social justice activist, H.M. Morgan, founded Tyler Barber College, which had locations in Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, New York, and Illinois. I used a curated reading list of journalism, scholarly articles, and presented live and recorded interviews of African American subject matter experts from Abilene. They were Floyd Miller, publisher of the West Texas Tribune, his wife, Marilyn, and one of his daughters, Sienna Miller. Two Abilene entrepreneurs appeared via recorded Zoom video: Joyce Ayers, owner of NeeCee's Barber and Cosmetology College, and Gerald Wilkerson, business owner of Wilkerson's Barbershop.
Second Master’s Degree 'in the Can'
Moreover, I leveraged my historian-journalist training. For example, I recently submitted my history master’s thesis about Morgan and Tyler Barber College Chain to my University of North Texas graduate committee. I used this scholarship to prepare the ACU weekend course content and assignments. UNT's Toulouse Graduate School plans to publish my thesis in its academic databases. |
Additionally, I am announcing my forthcoming M.A. in History degree! The Commencement is scheduled in December 2024. In August 2021, I began graduate history studies at the University of Texas at Arlington and transferred to UNT in August 2022. I pursued this new academic path at the behest of the late Dr. Charlie Marler, who was one of my mentors and my former media law professor at ACU, my first alma mater.
I previously earned a Master of Arts in Journalism Administration from the University of Memphis under the leadership of Dr. Dan Lattimore and Dr. David Arant, professors emeriti, who chaired the Department of Journalism.
Learn More:
A Newswoman’s Photo/Video Journey
Texas Highways' Profile of Edmund Morrow
As the nation honors birthday and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin L. King Jr., this 2024 holiday is a good time to pay tribute to the lives of the Memphis, Tennessee, sanitation workers who went on strike in 1968. They took a stand against economic, racial, and social injustice after two of their coworkers, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, were crushed to death in a Memphis garbage truck. The men got in the back of the garbage truck on February 1, 1968, to escape the Memphis rain. Their tragic deaths sparked the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike for economic justice and human dignity, which is why Dr. King went to Memphis. He was assassinated on the balcony of the then-Lorraine Motel, on April 4, 1968.
WATCH: Video Source: THE ROOT. Jack Walker, Pastor Ruth Walker Dortch, and Shirley Walker, children of the late Robet Walker; Also Hattie Word, Robert’s sister. |
According to a variety of sources, the mostly African American 1968 Memphis sanitation team, received unequal pay compared to their white coworkers. Additionally, the workers experienced substandard and unsafe working conditions, as evidenced by the tragic deaths of Cole and Walker. In 2003, Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, recorded oral history interviews with Memphis sanitation workers and labor and civil rights leaders, who were part of the 1968 strike. The event was called “I AM A MAN" Symposium and featured sanitation worker (watch the video) Taylor Rogers’ who shared memories of the strike:
Waye State’s symposium also includes a variety of primary sources, such as the pay stub from a striking sanitation worker, photos, newspaper articles, and other resources. The Wayne State University “I AM A MAN" Symposium was curated by, “Dan Golodner, American Federation of Teachers Archivist (AFT), W. P. Reuther Library, Johanna Russ, former American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Archivist (AFSCME), W. P. Reuther Library.” It was designed and developed by, “Meghan Finch, former Metadata Librarian, Wayne State University Libraries Joshua Neds-Fox, Coordinator for Digital Publishing, Wayne State University Libraries.”
Learn More:
Meet the MLK50 team.
The National Civil Rights Museum (formerly the Lorraine Motel), Memphis, TN.
The Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change.
The University of Memphis Digital Commons.
2019 MLK Day Prayer by Rev. Dr. Thomas Hudspeth, Associate Pastor of the Deaf Ministry and Congregational Care, Walnut Hill Church, Dallas, TX. (Check out the related links in that post).
Scholarly and Academic Resources:
Estes, Steve. ""I Am a Man!": Race, Masculinity, and the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike." Labor History 41, no. 2 (05, 2000): 153-170.
https://libproxy.library.unt.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/i-am-man-race-masculinity-1968-memphis-sanitation/docview/221088968/se-2.
Green, Laurie B. “We Were Making History: Students, Sharecroppers, and Sanitation Workers in the Memphis Freedom Movement.” In Battling the Plantation Mentality: Memphis and the Black Freedom Struggle, 216–50. University of North Carolina Press, 2007. https://doi.org/10.5149/9780807888872_green.10.
Hartsell, Cecelia M. “‘I Am a Man’: A Civil Rights-Era Declaration with Roots in the 1700s.” OAH Magazine of History 20, no. 5 (2006): 46–47. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25162086.
How the Memphis Sanitation Strike Changed History
(c) HarvestReapers Communications, 2024.
Smith County, Texas Plans New County Courthouse at Site of Historic Tyler Barber College Chain, Now Defunct
Editorial Note: Regina L. Burns is researching the Tyler Barber College Chain as part of her dissertation at the University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, where she is a Ph.D. student in the History Department. Tyler Barber College Chain is the nation’s first African American barber school, founded by the late Henry Miller Morgan (also known as H. M. Morgan) during Jim Crow segregation, in 1933 in Tyler, Texas.
Undoubtedly, Morgan’s decision to launch his own school was heavily influenced by Texas’ 1929 barber licensing law, which required barbers to obtain the necessary training to get a license, but segregation blocked African Americans from such training. When Morgan launched Tyler Barber College, not only was it a novel enterprise, but it proved his business and educational acumen and dedication to advancing the uplift of the Black community.
Burns, an award-winning multimedia journalist who has worked for The Associated Press in Mississippi and Texas, as well as media outlets in Memphis, Tennessee, Fayetteville, North Carolina, and Dallas, Texas, first discovered Tyler Barber College during a freelance gig with Texas Highways magazine in the summer of 2020. Burns credits former TH editor, Matt Joyce, with pointing her in Edmund Morrow’s (Jamie Foxx's former barber) direction. Morrow and his late father, Robert E. Morrow, both graduated from Tyler Barber College’s Dallas location.
At the behest of the late Dr. Charlie Marler, Burns’ former Abilene Christian University media law professor, and longtime mentor, she sought guidance from several historians and professors, and subsequently, enrolled in graduate history courses in fall 2021 at the University of Texxas at Arlington (UTA). Two scholarships from UTA professor emeritus, Dr. W. Marvin Dulaney, made those courses possible. Dulaney, now the national president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), championed her decision to study at the doctoral degree level at the University of North Texas (UNT).
On behalf of the UNT Oral History Collection, led by Dr. Todd Moye, Burns has conducted several unpublished oral history interviews of graduates/leaders connected to Morgan and the barber college. These interviews will be included in the dissertation.
Due to years of hard work by a group of dedicated volunteers at the Texas Association of Tonsorial Artists, (TAOTA) the professional barbers' organization Morgan founded in the 1950s, and the Smith County Historical Society, the Texas Historical Commission honored Morgan’s legacy with a state historical marker in 2004. The TAOTA held a jubilant marker dedication ceremony in 2005 (document provided by James Smith, former TAOTA executive president) in Tyler in front of the building that formerly housed the school, which closed in the 1970s.
Also in 2005, the 79th Texas Legislature honored Morgan’s historical marker in both the Senate and the House. These rare and hard-won public accolades, together with the pioneering work of the school's administrators, instructors, and graduates, are undeniable evidence of Morgan’s power and brilliance, and the college’s educational, economic, and cultural impacts to Texas and the nation.
The news article is below.
The demolition is required as part of a $179 million bond that voters approved on Nov. 8, 2022. The demolition date is pending. Tyler is located 105 miles east of Dallas.
“It’s unfortunate that I wasn’t thinking about the (Tyler) Barber College at the time of the election. It wasn’t in my consciousness. I knew the barber college was there and had a (historical) marker,” said Wade, the first African American president of the Smith County Historical Society. During a phone interview on July 17, 2023, Wade also said, “That building was considered ‘Black Wall Street’ and I plan to contact the Texas Historical Commission to notify them of what’s going on with the building. I want to see if anything can be done. I wish the building could be saved.” The building is located at 212 E, Erwin St., in Tyler.
Smith County Judge Neal Franklin responded to a July 17, 2023, email inquiry about the date of the demolition, indicating that it may be in 2024, “… but I’m not positive. There are a lot of moving parts. We have several groups interested in the historical significance of the buildings. I am happy to assist you in any way I can.”

In 2004, the Texas Historical Commission approved a historical marker commemorating Morgan’s success as a barber, entrepreneur, political activist, and philanthropist. When he died in 1961 in Houston, Jet magazine (discovered by UNT Labor Historian Dr. Chad Pearson) reported he was a millionaire. The marker is located near the front of the building where Morgan’s school brought students from all over the nation to Tyler. In 2005, the TAOTA commemorated the maker's installation.
According to the marker's text, Morgan “established male and female student dormitories, and in 1937 he opened a branch in Houston. In 1945, he opened a location in Jackson, Mississippi, adding a branch in Little Rock, Arkansas the next year. In 1948, his Manhattan location opened, and a Dallas branch opened in 1949. The Tyler headquarters quickly grew to accommodate the expanding business, and at one time the school reportedly was training a majority of the nation's African American barbers.”
According to “Cutting Along the Color Line: Black Barbers and Barber Shops in America” by Quincy T. Mills, “between 1935 and 1944” the institution “graduated 1,635 barbers.” Mills, an associate professor of history at the University of Maryland, wrote that “women represented two-thirds of the 126 enrolled students” and Morgan’s students included veterans, using their G.I. Bill benefits.
In the late 1950s, Johnny Crawford and his family lived in Tampa, Florida. He heard an ad on the radio about Tyler Barber College, and after giving it thought, decided to enroll. He was admitted and moved his family to Tyler in 1959, he said in a 2022 unpublished interview for the UNT Oral History Collection. Crawford completed the nine-month course and in March 1960, went to Houston to take the barber licensing exam, which he passed. Later, he and his family relocated from Tyler to Dallas, where Crawford landed a job with the late Dallas barber Johnny Graham.
Crawford worked at Graham’s Barber Shop for several years and later established his own Dallas barber shop and barber supply business. He also joined the TAOTA. Crawford served as its executive president and held a variety of other leadership roles. He is credited with creating the Tyler chapter of the TAOTA. Additionally, he was part of the group that worked with the Smith County Historical Society to obtain Morgan’s historical marker.
Now semi-retired, the 84-year-old Crawford is still cutting hair in Oak Cliff, a Dallas suburb. When he heard about the impending demolition of the barber college's building, Crawford said, “I feel bad. I know the circumstances. It’s really hard to preserve old buildings. Most of the time, cities want to have modern buildings.”
Learn more:
Texas Highways' Profile of Edmund Morrow, Jamie's Foxx's Former Barber
EXCLUSIVE: 53 years after attending Dr. King's funeral at the behest of Ann Arbor, Michigan officials, meet the Black man who was president ... (Online Audio Documentary)
Reporter's Notebook: Covering the Alamo’s Historic Reveal for Texas Highways Magazine
Copyright (2023) Regina L. Burns
I wanted to eat the whole 890-calorie butter cake slice from the Athens, Texas, Cotton Patch Cafe, but I didn't. My hard-won weight loss during the lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic and the weekly maintenance goal (and strength training challenges) to keep off those 40 pounds stopped me. Thank you, Weight Watchers! | I enjoyed the divinely delicious part I ate, tracked it in the WW app, and boxed up the rest to go in the freezer in Dallas, Texas. |
It was January 2023 and I was on assignment for Texas Highways magazine in Athens, an East Texas town well-known for its food and exciting aquatic experiences. Just like its namesake, Athens, Greece, people flock here to have new adventures. I sensed my profile on the town, through Athens City Councilmember SyTanna Freeman’s eyes, would be memorable. For example, when we went to the $18 million Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center, I was thrilled to include this treasure in my story. We made other stops as Freeman narrated insights about her childhood and early life.
Read my Texas Highways' Athens profile here
Story photo by Tiffany Hofeldt
Slideshow photos of me by Emily Buziewicz
Since 1998, the town has elected three African Americans, Carl Westbrook, Elaine Jenkins, and Freeman, to the Athens City Council, according to city spokesman Michael Hannigan. Freeman is the only African American city councilmember among five currently serving Athens. She cherishes that role and recently celebrated 20 years with the Athens Independent School District. Furthermore, she works part-time after school taking the tickets at the Hornets’ games.
Later that crisp Friday evening at Athens High School, I witnessed the charm Freeman brings to ticket taking as she doled out change and chatted with students, parents, and other basketball fans. The magic of community connections revealed itself in smiles, “Good evenings,” and several versions of “Sorry, you can’t bring that bag in here.” The people who received those last comments generally responded with “Sorry, I didn’t see the sign. I’ll take it back to the car.” Freeman’s daughter, Tabitha Page, and her young children, stopped by and another part of the Athens story fell into place.
The next day, I met Rev. Earnest Freeman, SyTanna's husband. He is a manager in retail and also the pastor at Mt. Moriah Baptist Church. The church, which was founded in 1896, is located 10 miles west of Athens in the Sand Flat community. SyTanna Freeman said some descendants of the original founders are among the church's membership. In March 2023, the Freemans celebrated “11 years of faithful service” at the church.
Heading back to Dallas, I realized Athens has a powerful connection to its namesake. Fishing enthusiasts support its remarkable Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center as well as Lake Athens. The high school’s Hornets’ athletic events are popular with the hometown crowd, and SyTanna Freeman and her family are leaders contributing to Athens’ success. I witnessed the distinctive bonds and special moments of small-town life. My own enjoyment of an unbelievable culinary treat topped off the assignment. My trip to Athens was a memorable adventure.
This Women’s History Month 2023, I am saluting Texas Highways magazine for its ongoing commitment to creating editorial opportunities for Black women journalists, such as me. Thank you, Matt Joyce, my former editor, for opening this wonderful opportunity to me! Joyce was a patient editor and he helped me learn the nuances of reporting in the “as-told-to” format. When I needed journalism work, Texas Highways contracted me to report substantial assignments, including fact-checking gigs and web stories. Moreover, I landed and contributed to a range of projects, including traveling to Terrell, Palestine, Abilene, and Kaufman for “My Hometown” profiles.
Last fall, I trekked to Kaufman to interview Hector Torres for Texas Highways' February 2023 issue. I discovered that Kaufman was a friendly place, and Torres’ rich life story was bonded with loving-familial connections, self-empowerment, business leadership, and civic power.
I am using my journalism experience to build a new foundation and to earn a doctoral degree in history at the University of North Texas. My goal is to become a professor in African American history in Texas. Furthermore, Joyce championed my graduate history studies by writing recommendation letters. I started my graduate studies in 2021 at UT Arlington thanks to scholarships from Dr. W. Marvin Dulaney. I am pursuing this degree because of the encouragement from my late mentor and former Abilene Christian University media law professor, Dr. Charlie Marler.
All of my Texas Highways journalism gigs enabled me to expand my storytelling skills in the Texas travel and magazine markets. Each of these "My Hometown" profiles also taught me new ways to do research. Subsequently, I have contributed to the magazine’s diversity of subjects, towns, and content. Stay tuned for more of my Texas Highways' gigs!
View my other Texas Highways' work here
Black History Month 2023 Salute: Celebrating New Mount Zion Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, Inc.
2/11/2023
Quick Facts
Name: New Mount Zion Baptist Church
Address: 9550 Shepherd Road, Dallas, Texas 75243
Phone number: 214.341.6459
Website: www.nmzb.org/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nmzbc1598/streams
Pastor: Dr. Tommy L. Brown, installed on Nov. 9, 2014; President of the Baptist Ministers Union of Dallas and Vicinity
First Lady: Ruth "Nell" Brown; 2nd Vice President of the National Missionary Baptist Convention of America Minister Wives and Widows Auxiliary
Year Founded: January 1946
Unique Service: GriefShare Affiliate
My first encounter with this church was more than 15 years ago, when one of my then “little” nephews visited me one summer. I needed childcare support and New Mount Zion’s Day Care Center was highly recommended by one of my clients, Mrs. Marilyn Calhoun. It worked out perfectly and they took good care of my nephew.
Fast forward to May 2022, when my mentor and former Abilene Christian University media law professor, Dr. Charlie Marler, died in Abilene, Texas. I sought grief counseling through the national GriefShare program. New Mount Zion is listed among the virtual options. Even though my work schedule conflicted with the virtual meetings and I could not attend, I received a phone call from one of the church’s GriefShare organizers, Mrs. Barbara Kelly (see photo above). She was very supportive and prayed with me over the death of Dr. Marler, who “ordered” me to go back to school to become a historian in African American History. (You can read about my new academic journey here). Even though I found another option for grief counseling, Kelly and several others followed up with me. This got my attention and I started visiting the church intermittently.
Just as my history graduate courses were starting, I decided New Mount Zion was the place for me because of its caring environment and powerful preaching by Dr. Tommy L. Brown, the pastor. Dr. Brown and his wife, First Lady Ruth “Nell” Brown, (see photos above) are dedicated to serving the church and being beacons of light in their respective communities. I have been especially impressed with their commitment to the youth through college scholarships and a variety of outreach events. Their online services on YouTube gave me strength when I could not get to the building, especially during the hectic first semester of my Ph.D. studies at the University of North Texas (UNT).
Finally, I have received encouragement and prayers whenever I asked for them and even when I did not. My goal is to earn a Ph.D. specializing in African American History in Texas. I am excited about my new church family! Please join me in celebrating New Mount Zion Baptist Church!
View Regina's Selected Black History Posts:
Reporter's Notebook: Covering the Alamo’s Historic Reveal for Texas Highways Magazine
'Medgar Evers: Mississippi Martyr' Author Dr. Michael Williams Commemorates the 50th Anniversary
EXCLUSIVE: 53 years after attending Dr. King's funeral at the behest of Ann Arbor, Michigan officials, meet the Black man who was president of the NAACP Youth Council and whose name never made the newspapers in 1968 (Online Audio Documentary)
8 Women Historymakers
Veteran Dallas Morning News Columnist Norma Adams-Wade Still Making History
Saluting Kenny Ray DeWalt: Memphis Trombone Player for Rev. Al Green, The Bar-Kays
Updated: Do you know why Dr. King went to Memphis?
That is where I first met Ross Blasingame. He is a true leader and a lot of fun to work with. Even after I graduated and moved on with my broadcast journalism career, I kept in touch with Ross through his son, Guy Blasingame. Fast forward to May 2022 when I returned to Abilene to attend the memorial service for Dr. Charlie Marler, my mentor and former media law professor, who died in May 2022.
Dr. Marlar was the person who encouraged me to go back to school to become a historian of African American History. Frankly, during that life-changing phone conversation in December 2020, it was more of an "order" rather than encouragement. In 1993, Dr. Marler selected me to become the first African American and the first woman recipient of ACU's prestigious Gutenberg Award.
While I was in Abilene in May 2022 for that sad event, I pitched a "My Hometown" profile of Ross to Texas Highways magazine. Here is the story.
Read my other Texas Highways work here.
This Texas Highways’ web story is one of the most important news stories I have ever reported. It bolsters my award-winning journalism experience and current pursuit of the Ph.D. in history at the University of North Texas. Further, it contributes to research about Emily West and Hendrick Arnold, the two mixed-race African American historic figures who will forever be celebrated for their contributions to the Texas Revolution.
Read about my journey to graduate school
When I received an email from Texas Highways magazine asking if I would be interested in reporting about the Alamo’s first statues honoring African Americans who were part of the Texas Revolution, I squeezed it into my overcrowded schedule. What I discovered about them confirmed the wisdom of my late former Abilene Christian University mentor, Dr. Charlie Marler. During a phone call in December 2020, he said,“There aren’t enough African American historians. I want you to go back to school to become a historian!”
That was an order, not a request.
Read my memorial blog series about Dr. Marler
I am so glad I listened and followed Dr. Marler’s order to go back to school and that he witnessed my graduate studies in the history program at the University of Texas at Arlington. That achievement was possible thanks to scholarships from Dr. W. Marvin Dulaney, the president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) and he is also UTA professor emeritus. I look forward to researching, reporting, writing, and publishing many more neglected Black history stories for multimedia platforms, magazines, newspapers, academic journals, books, and yes, my future dissertation!
My journalism professor, mentor, and guiding light, Dr. Charlie Marler, died May 27, 2022, and I am creating a series of blog posts about the impact he had on my and his other former students’ journalism and media careers. I am bringing his colleagues and others into the conversation as well. In this post, I share the text of Ron Hadfield's remarks from the Celebration of Life service, held June 1, 2022, at the University Church of Christ, Abilene, TX.
Fourth Post: Ron Hadfield's Remarks at Dr. Charlie Marler's Celebration of Life Service, June 1, 2022
By Ron Hadfield | Download the .PDF from the memorial serviceand his parents smile. His teacher, Peggy, was an uncompromising editor, but a loving one, and one of Tanner’s earliest encouragers that he become a writer, which he has. |
The Marlers shared Charlie’s 89th home-cooked birthday lunch with me last month, a feast including two of his favorites: barbeque pork ribs and a decadent chocolate cake. The conversation was candid and comforting, and it reminded me of moments years ago around the same table between this college student and two of the most godly people I’ve ever known.
Charlie Marler was my college professor, my professional mentor and my Texas Father, and not always in that order. I did not aspire to be a college professor, but in most other ways, my journalistic apple, so to speak, did not fall far from his tree.
By task and by default, we have found ourselves serving as unofficial historians for Abilene Christian, for a combined total of more than 100 years, a number I have a hard time grasping.
That’s a privilege and a responsibility we enjoyed but took seriously: a blessing with, at times, a heavy yoke. In short, we learn about our shared alma mater, store the facts where others can hopefully find them later, and tell stories about its people and moments that matter most.
Together, we have worked across the street at a place where the late, great academic dean Walter H. Adams once said he was a member of the church, at the institution where he was worth more to the church than anywhere else. We saw our work that way, as mission and vocation.
For just short of 40 years, I have had the often unenviable task of proofing and editing the best editor I knew.
Early on, I felt like the relief pitcher waiting in the bullpen to follow Mariano Rivera, the nearly infallible and eventual Baseball Hall of Fame closer who wrapped up wins for the New York Yankees: When Mariano and Charlie were through being great at what they do, there was not much meat left on the proverbial barbeque pork rib.
Even at the end of his eighth decade, Charlie could work circles around most people half his age. His work ethic, like my own parents, has been an inescapable inheritance. Before his stroke and fall last week, he likely was online, at age 89, researching something to benefit his latest project for me or his own interest on ACU’s behalf.
Over time, kinks began to show in his armor, thanks to failing vision, a slightly leaky memory and the challenge of keeping up with "Associated Press Stylebook" editors who changed their mind on punctuation and usage like most of us change our socks.
But he genuinely appreciated the extra set of eyes I brought to our relationship, and we regularly exchanged drafts of our work. I sought his counsel on difficult days, and he always wanted to know what was new in my world. Over time, my professor became my teammate and confidant.
He never stopped being a champion of free speech yet always defended, even demanded, the truth be told as well.
Ours was not unlike the relationship I came to enjoy with the late Dr. John C. Stevens, ACU’s eighth president and another unofficial historian who spent half a century on campus as professor and administrator. The three of us collaborated on two history books, and on projects small and large, including those for an ambitious Centennial that took decades to plan, 12 months to celebrate and years to recover from.
The ironies never failed to awe me. Dr. Marler was the newspaper advisor and Dr. John the president during my college days and two tours of duty as editor of The Optimist. I probably kept both of them on their toes with investigative stories and youthfully enthusiastic editorials that took no prisoners. Years later, though, I found myself as Stevens’ golf partner many Saturday mornings and the rest of the time, as Charlie’s storyteller sidekick.
Dr. John and Dr. Marler, fellow members of this church, each died in the month of May, now 15 years apart. My memories of them, like those described so eloquently by James Earl Jones in the iconic baseball film "Field of Dreams," are so thick today that I, too, have to brush them away from my face.
Mitch Albom, the best writer in my hometown of Detroit – and most other hometowns – wrote a top-selling book several years ago titled "Tuesdays With Morrie," a touching account of the time he spent with a beloved former college professor dying of Lou Gehrig’s disease. In the final chapter, Albom asks:
Have you ever really had a teacher? One who saw you as a raw but precious thing, a jewel that, with wisdom, could be polished to a proud shine? If you are lucky enough to find your way to such teachers, you will always find your way back. Sometimes it is only in your head. Sometimes it is right alongside their beds.
The teaching, Albom says, always goes on.
The last few years, I was fortunate to have regular meetings over lunch with Charlie, in addition to countless calls from his cell phone, which made me laugh because caller ID showed each to be from “Sweetwater, Texas” although he was never there. We met on other days as well, depending on Peggy’s trips to the hairdresser or lunches with her friends.
I told myself those gatherings were my Mondays With Marler, although there was no impending health issue, only sacred time with a mentor who had increasing trouble – like many of us as we age – getting up and down from his chair. His mind was as sharp as his wit.
For some reason, I had the overwhelming thought during the most recent lunch that it might be our last, and it was. That particular Monday With Marler was a bright day, the grass never greener and roses never more red outside the windows in the sun room where he worked and held court with me, and for years before, with students on Fridays in his Opinion Writing class.
Dr. John would often exclaim the words, “We shall not see his like again!” on more than one occasion about a passing dignitary or world leader, a paraphrase of Shakespeare’s famous line in Hamlet. Truer words were never spoken about each of them, as I shall not see their likes again, these two people who shaped me like no others.
With Charlie’s passing, the circle of unofficial historians for this university has become uncomfortably small. Thankfully, my life and work have been enriched by these two exacting but benevolent giants who shared their knowledge, took the time to know me and envision me at my best, and showed me the way there.
Especially this dear man and mentor, my Texas Father, whose teaching goes on.
Learn More:
Dr. Cheryl Mann Bacon Celebrates the Life and Legacy of Dr. Charlie Marler
Journeying Through Grief: The Death of My Mentor, Dr. Charlie Marler
|
About the Author:
Regina L. Burns, M.A., M.A., is a Dallas, Texas-based rising historian and award-winning multimedia journalist at Harvest Reapers Communications. She specializes in 20th century Texas African American Business History, specifically Tyler Barber College Chain, the nation’s first African American barber college chain founded by Texas African American millionaire, H. M. Morgan (Henry Miller Morgan).
Learn more
Archives
December 2024
September 2024
January 2024
July 2023
May 2023
March 2023
February 2023
October 2022
June 2022
May 2022
November 2021
August 2021
June 2021
May 2021
January 2021
November 2020
October 2019
March 2019
January 2019
March 2018
June 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
November 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
January 2016
November 2015
September 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
September 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011