[brian]

Ninety-year-old Laura Thresher Johnston will again make the record books when she accepts a master's degree in history next weekend from Sam Houston State University. As the oldest student in her class, she'll also become one of the oldest alumni of the 126-year-old school. Just a few years ago, she was the university's oldest undergraduate when she received a degree in Spanish at 85.

She takes her achievements in stride.

"It's an accomplishment that more and more people should take advantage of," she said. "When I first came here, there was hardly anybody in their mid-30s, 40s, 50s. Now you see them all over the campus."

Even after a quarter century in Texas, Johnston's voice identifies her Boston background. The 1933 high school graduate grew up in Massachusetts, and worked as a nurse in Boston and Salem. She raised three daughters with her husband of 25 years, and later moved to Florida, where she worked as a waitress in the Miami area.

Full Story: Ninety-year-old former Boston nurse to get master's degree [WHDH-TV,MA]

[Jessy_RN]

wow,

She gives life to the saying "Life begins at 65"! Way to go, may the Lord give her many more years and she might just accomplish her doctorate too.

[ali_gator]

This lady is living proof that you're never too old to go back to school!

[Drysolong]

This article was an inspiration to me. I will be 55 in a few days and will graduate from LPN school in March, 2006. Just the impetus I need to go on to RN school for ADN, BSN, MSN, maybe PhD. Then teaching, writing, and who knows what else.

[TheCommuter]

This woman's story was filled with powerful determination and inspiration. She has accomplished something that only 25 percent of the adult population has managed to do: obtain higher learning.

[NRSKarenRN]

She took a math class four times, including two remedial classes, until she passed. And professors didn't bow to her age and cut her any slack.
"Not a bit, absolutely not," she said, adding that she didn't expect any special consideration. "I wouldn't have learned if they had. I don't think any of these were easy."
Computers were a challenge too, and her presence in computer labs often raised quizzical glances from her far younger student colleagues.
"This crowd gets in front of me and looks at me and says: What the hell is this old lady doing at that computer? I have to admit, I did look at them and say please don't look at me like that," she said. "It's not my fault I'm this old."

Reminds me alot of my fathers mother who lived till 99 1/2.
Lord, let me be like that at age 90....

[Katnip]

Originally Posted by NRSKarenRN

Reminds me alot of my fathers mother who lived till 99 1/2.
Lord, let me be like that at age 90....

Amen.

I applaud this lady. Reminds me of back in the '80s when a woman named Helen Hooven Santmyer published her first book. It was called "And Ladies of the Club" and was a bestseller for months. She was 93.