Swiss Avenue resident Harryette Ehrhardt was honored by former First Lady Laura Bush at the dedication of the library at Zan Wesley Holmes Jr. Middle School in Dallas.
Across the way at Zan Wesley Holmes Jr. Middle School, our own Harryette Ehrhardt, who lives on historic Swiss and spent her first years in school at Stonewall Jackson Elementary, received a tremendous honor this weekend.
The library at Holmes Middle School was dedicated to Ehrhardt, a former DISD teacher and principal and a retired state legislature. The dedication was performed by none other than former First Lady Laura Bush, who was once a student of Ehrhardt’s at SMU.
The prestigious visit meant two important things to Ehrhardt. First, it gave the children at Holmes Middle School a chance to hear from the former first lady, Ehrhardt explains.
“The school is in a modest part of town, and many of our children have never seen a library except in their school. Most of them have never gone to a bookstore, and some of them don’t have one single book in their home,” she says.
“By having Mrs. Bush there, we gave them something that’s a once in a lifetime thing. They’ll never have an opportunity to see something like this again, to hear her talk about the library and the books. I wanted that for them, and so that was a major reason behind why I asked her.”
The second reason was for the adults, “to say, look you grown ups, Mrs. Bush is from a pretty strong Republican background, and I am a pretty darn strong Democrat, but we respect each other,” Ehrhardt points out. “We are friends and we work together for things like reading for children and libraries, and that’s OK.”
When I called Ehrhardt about the dedication, knowing she has likely talked to a dozen reporters about the same event, I partially expected a half-hearted “fluff quote,” and I wouldn’t have blamed her. Instead, she excitedly recounted the details, even taking the time to tell me the story of how she came to know Mrs. Bush.
“I knew Mrs. Bush as Laura Welch in, let’s see, ‘60-something… in the early 60s, at SMU. She majored in education, and I taught education. My primary course was children’s literature, and Laura Bush took that course.
“It was a very hard course. You had to work hard to do it. They were required to read every children’s literary classic… and be prepared to answer questions on them. They had to make a card file for every one of those books, with the synopsis of it, character summaries, what age range was it appropriate for. They had a huge card file… very few students endeavored to master it. Most of them passed, but very few did well. I remember the students who made A’s, and Laura Bush was one of them. I remember where she sat.
“She fell off my radar when she graduated and I left SMU, and I never really saw her again until I served in the state legislature and George Bush was the governor. We were at the Governor’s Mansion for an event for the legislatures, and Gov. Bush said to me, ‘Dr. Ehrhardt, my wife made an A in your children’s literature class.’ He was so proud of her, as he should have been. And that was my reintroduction into what had happened to Laura Welch.”
As if that isn’t enough to make your heart melt, stay tuned; it gets better. Ehrhardt is a very dedicated democrat (Did I mention that already?), which put her at odds with the Bushes during the presidential election – a fact that Laura Bush knew.
“(Laura Bush) was named as the outstanding SMU alum. It was during George Bush’s race for president, and I, on one side, working against him with all the fervor I can muster. She, at that acceptance, said, ‘The reason I became a librarian is because of Dr. Ehrhardt’s children’s literature class.’ That is a class act.”
Ehrhardt believes that acknowledgement from Mrs. Bush speaks to a deeper belief that Democrats and Republicans should at times put aside differences to focus on commonalities instead. It’s a message Ehrhardt is passionate about sharing.
“I think Mrs. Bush also thinks that, so when I had the opportunity to choose who the spokesperson for the library naming would be, she was who I wanted,” Ehrhardt says.
Of course, she had no idea what that meant at the time.
“I knew there would be secret services and whatnot, but I had no idea all that was involved – what I would be doing to her staff, to DISD, to the school. It was been quite an education for me,” she recounts laughing.
“What made it really a great gift is that while I didn’t know what I was asking, she did know, and she still came. And I am very grateful to her.”
