Lucy Capers graduates from college at 79. (Photo: ABC NEWS) A 79-year-old great-grandmother of six Lucy Capers, has graduated from ...
Lucy Capers graduates from college at 79. (Photo: ABC NEWS)
A 79-year-old great-grandmother of six Lucy Capers, has graduated from the University of Maryland University College.
According to ABC News, Capers went to a segregated elementary school in Alabama. She never graduated from high school.
She moved to Maryland, got married, had her first child, and started working for the federal government. In 1957, she finally got her GED. Sixty years later, she’s finally finished college.
“Basically, I always wanted an education,” she said. “And the more you learn, the more you open up to new things and look at the world in a different way.”
Capers earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Studies and hopes to set a positive example for her many great-grandchildren.
Married at 18 years old, Capers’ husband was in the military. After a number of moves, the couple raised three children in Maryland. She worked for the Department of Defense but retired in 2002.
In 2004, she started studying at Prince George’s Community College where she was only required to pay for registration and books. She got two associates degrees but wanted that four-year degree so she started at UMUC two years later.
She took one or more classes a term for nine years and only missing class during one semester when her husband’s health declined. So is she finished?
“If the university pays for master’s degrees for seniors, I may try for that,” she said.
-NAN
