Blanche K. Millard

Here are a picture and a letter from Mrs. Millard's husband, John:

Blanche Kaiser Millard

Blanche Kaiser, a tall knock out blonde graduate from Vanderbilt, Phi Beta Kappa with

honors in English, set out to instill in the kids at White Station her love of the

English language, poetry and prose.

She had a special love for the class of ‘61. Since she started teaching you in the eighth

grade, and as you were promoted to the next grade, she was promoted with

you so that she persisted in instilling the love of English literature in you for four straight

years.

If you didn’t get it then, it was not her fault! Blanche loved teaching and she loved her students especially those who excelled and enjoyed English literature as she did.

I remember stories of her first days at White Station. One day while pacing back and forth between desks and absorbed in her role as Lady Macbeth, a boy pinched her and she slapped him to the floor without losing a beat of the Shakespearian iambic pentameter. That happened only once.

Since Miss Kaiser had a tendency to faint with some regularity, I remember the Principal, Rush Siler, appointed a boy in each class to carry her down to the teachers lounge to recuperate. By the way, she continued this little habit for years.

I remember the story of the boy who missed class and turned up the next day with an obviously forged excuse note from his “mom” stating that her precious son had missed school the previous day due to “low brain pressure”. Blanche said in this case that was precisely the problem.

I will always remember the evening after our wedding rehearsal dinner on June 5, 1959 which also happened to be the final exam day at White Station, the wedding party gathered at our apartment to help Blanche grade the exams, the final grades being due the next morning. Since our wedding was the next day followed by the honeymoon to Acapulco and there was no time to grade any of the usual long discussion questions, the bride to be condescended to settle for a multiple choice format! Blanche called out the correct answers as the wedding party checked the exam papers. This was not exactly her style but had to do in a pinch. I have always hoped everyone passed! The wedding party did their best to help!

The next fall when school started in September of 1959 after our wedding the football players and others who had been warned by the coach not to sign up for Miss Kaiser’s English class signed up for a new name, Mrs. Millard. Of course new teachers were always a cinch. Then on the first day of school when they walked into class and there was Miss Kaiser in one of her gazillion cashmere sweaters with her over sized Phi Beta Kappa key around her neck. The guys panicked and the room was evacuated in a flash. Let’s face it! It’s not fair for a teacher to be smart, and good looking and so tough and to have surreptitiously changed her name over the summer vacation! Too much!!

Later came all the evenings with Blanche reading and grading pages and pages of homework for hours and hours and covering all available margin space with notes, suggestions and corrections. She was absolutely driven to make certain that her

students reached the peak of their potentials and she delighted in her students many achievements.

I remember on several occasions coming home from my office to our little apartment in the late afternoon finding her there with students all over the place, on the sofa, in the chairs, and on the floor all working on papers or articles for the school paper,

“The Scroll”. I remember Blanche was the adviser for the “The Scroll” for several years and the hard working staff asked her what they could give her as a gift at the end of the year. Never thinking small, Blanche said she had always wanted a silver punch bowl. So they gave her a beautiful silver ladle and left the bowl up to me! Actually it was many years later that our daughter Blanche (Bea) and her husband Jim Williams came through with the bunch bowl. Blanche always treasured the ladle as well as a beautiful silver tray inscribed as a gift from “The Scroll” which we have always used on special occasions.

Blanche’s years at White Station were remembered with great pleasure and fondness

for her many friends there.

John Millard