Thursday, March 23, 1967 – Dallas Times Herald

90- Year-Old Finds Fountain of Youth

By Dorothy Fagg Home Editor

Mrs. Emma Balch Uhl has discovered her own fountain of youth and at the age of 90, she is still dipping into it.

The secret of her happiness is "taking the child whom someone has labeled 'stupid' and transforming him into an acceptable, working student."

She has been teaching off and on for more than 70 years.

HER FORMULA OF success in this tutoring work is simple.  She begins with the student someone has declared "as needing help" or "being hopeless."

She said:

"I teach him how to read by

• Not fighting the child

• By building up his confidence in himself

• By teaching him how to try."

She believes in phonics as a basic principle for remedial reading which she still teaches.

THAT SHE HAS BEEN successful will be evidenced Sunday at Wheatland Methodist Church when church members, family, friends and more than 300 former students will pause to pay homage to her.

Said one daughter, "We hope to honor her . . . that is, if she finds time to come to this birthday party."

AT THE AGE OF 90, her schedule does not allow much time for "foolishness" such as parties.  She still teaches or "tutors" four hours per day.

She lives alone at 314 E. Edgefield.

SHE IS A FREE lance writer, having written numerous articles for local newspapers and magazines.  She is an active member of Wheatland Church and has served as secretary of the Wheatland Cemetery Association since it was founded in 1907, a position which requires both writing and bookkeeping.

She is a local historian, works with the Austin Historical Society and with Methodist Church Historical Society.  She has had 300 poems published.

EMMA B. UHL CAME to Dallas County in 1896 to teach at Wheatland, a one-teacher school.

She was educated at the John Collier College in Mansfield, Texas, "when that was considered the educational center of the Southwest," she said.

Her first school teaching was at a little community named Rehobeth near Mansfield.  She attended teacher's institutes held near college center in those days.  After rearing her family, she went back to coaching students who needed it.

RECEIVING GUESTS with her Sunday will be her daughters Mrs. Irene Fleming, 3227 Hedgerow; Mrs. Eleanor Godfrey, 5717 E. Claridge Circle; Mrs. Miriam Lawrence, Houston, and her son Wallace, formerly of Dallas, now retired, living in Tarpon Springs, Fla.

Her family does not expect the 90th birthday to slow Emma Uhl up.  Two severe automobile accidents have not, although she now walks on crutches as a results of one of them 10 years ago.  A cataract operation failed to stop her teaching.