Tell us about The Teacher Who Changed My Life – and why.

I have been blessed with many “teachers” in my life–some in formal classrooms and others in less formal settings so it is a challenge to select just one who changed my life. However. if I have to choose, that honor would go to Ruth Vernon, who I was privileged to have as both a 5th and 6th grade English teacher. Ruth was my teacher at Ransom Elementary School in Nashville and I can still hear her melodic voice as she read out loud to us. Ruth gave me the life long love of being read to and reading to others. She could bring me to great gales of laughter and to tears with her selection of narratives to share. Ms. Vernon opened up exotic destinations in my imagination. I still have one of my report cards where she said I was going to go places–she also, said I talked too much. Thanks, Ms. Vernon–you were right on both counts.