Dr. Francis Willis

The Denison Herald
Sunday, May 30, 1993

Dr. Willis Ends 52 Year Career in Denison Schools
Dr. Frances Willis is ending her 52-year career in the same building where she attended second and third grade.
Willis, vocational administrator for Denison ISD, grew up in Denison and attended grade school at Peabody Elementary which now is the Administration Building.
Willis is a 1935 graduate of Denison High School and received her bachelor's degree from Southeastern Oklahoma State University.  She received her master's from Texas State College for Women and her doctorate from Texas Women's University.
She married Benjamin Anderson Willis in 1944 when schools were not hiring married women.  During that summer after writing the Denison superintendent asking permission to teach, she was hired.
Since then  she has taught math, English and home economics at the high school level and served as a counselor before going into administration.
She said she always knew she was going to be a teacher.  "My mother, also a teacher, and I was going to teach," Willis said.  "At that time it was one of the best professions for women."  Willis said she has enjoyed teaching because it is "creative".  "You never get in a rut because every day the students are different," she said.  "High school students are the most trusting group.  They are busy with activities, they keep you on your toes, and they tell it the way it is.  They don't mince words."
Through her years in the profession, she has learned to deal with the challenge of high school students.  "The teacher has to be in control and ha s to build a rapport with the students," she said.  "You have to believe in what you're teaching and practice it.  They can tell a phony, but they will respect you if they can identify that you are sincere."
One of the people Willis respects is Dr. Esther Broome, her mentor while she was working on her doctorate.  "She would chew on you, and make you want to prove to her that you could do something," Willis said.  "Everything had to be exactly right, and she made you toe the mark."  However, with a little distance, Willis learned to respect Broome and even used some of her tactics in her own classroom.  In fact, Willis said some of her students called her "Dart Willis", because if the darts were not pretty then the students were told to tear them out and sew new ones.
Willis also taught students to speak correctly, to be respectful of others, to live a full life, and to have an interest in other people.  These same characteristics can be found in her own philosophy of life which she said was "to live each day to its fullest."
"No one should ever be bored with as many things as there are to do and to see.  It's important to keep you mind active and to do challenging things.  The more experiences you have the more you understand people and things," she said.
Willis plans to put her philosophy to use after retirement by taking piano and organ lessons and by studying either Spanish or French.  "Retirement is just a new way of living," she said.  "I'll have to adjust and make some goals for myself."
Her interests also include playing bridge, reading, and sewing, and she said she leaves her sewing machine set up because sewing helps here "get away from the rest of the world."  She expects her last day to be similar to any other day, and she plans to walk out and "let 'er rip."  "I want to be flexible," she said.  "If I get the chance to do something, I want to be able to jump up and do it."

Francis Cornell (Willis), third recipient of Y-Teen Cup of Complete Girlhood
1935

Source: Figure 4.60 in Bryant & Hunt, TWO SCHOOLS ON MAIN STREET, DENISON, TEXAS, 1873 - 2007, pg 99




Willis House
1531 West Heron Street at South Fairbanks Avenue





Biography Index
Susan Hawkins
©2025

If you find any of Grayson CountyTXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message.