Remembering Dr. Valree Fletcher Wynn

Remembering

Dr. Valree Fletcher Wynn

The Cameron University community mourns the death of groundbreaking Professor Emeritus Valree Fletcher Wynn, died on September 25 at her home in Lewisville, Texas.

Born on May 9, 1922, in Rockwall, Texas, Wynn grew up in Sentinel, Okla., during an era when there was no school for African-American children. Her parents understood the value of an education, so they lobbied for - and eventually won – the right to build a school. Because her mother had already taught her to read, Wynn started school in the third grade.

During a 2007 interview for the Oral History Project featuring inductees in the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame, Wynn explained, “The first day, the teacher gave me a book and told me to read until I missed a word and that would be the grade she put me in. That is how I started school in the third grade.” After that school burned down, Wynn continued her education in Sentinel, first in a brush arbor built by her father and community members, then in her own house, where her parents moved the benches in the winter. “That’s how much my parents valued education,” she explained.

After completing the eighth grade, Wynn was sent to Lawton to attend high school, staying with family friends. After graduating from Douglass High School in 1939, she attended junior college in Pueblo, Colo., where she lived with an aunt and uncle.

“This was my first experience in an integrated system, and I had to make a tremendous adjustment,” Wynn said. “I could not believe that students of other races (teachers, too) accepted me as an equal and were my friends. It was a totally new (and pleasant) experience.”

Two years later, she enrolled at Langston University.

“Social life was great until World War II took away all the eligible young men,” she recalled. “We spent our time studying, playing bridge and writing love letters. There were three published teachers on the English faculty. I had found my niche. I became an English major.”

After earning a bachelor’s degree in 1943, she enrolled at Oklahoma State University to pursue a master’s degree, which she completed in 1951.

“One instructor came to me in class one day and handed me a paper I had written for the class and said, ‘I didn’t know you were that intelligent.’ That statement remained with me the entire time while I was at OSU. In the integrated situation, I always had to ‘prove’ myself.”

She credits one of her OSU professors for changing her life.

“My experience at Cameron fulfilled every dream I ever had of success in my life.”

“John Milstead was the best thing that could have happened to my academic career. He told me, ‘I’ll take you as a student and I’ll make a scholar out of you.’ He demanded (and got) 100% from every student in his classes. He showed me how to move from a fact-bound student to a thinking scholar.”

She was in disbelief on the first day of class when she received a syllabus that contained more than 25 pages of resources.

“At the end of the course, that syllabus was wrinkled, dog-eared and full of coffee and tear stains, but I was a totally changed person. I had learned! He allowed us to think for ourselves, but if we could not support our ideas with much research, he would nail us to the wall! He taught me how to learn. I’ll never forget him.”

Wynn said she always wanted to be a teacher, a goal she met when she joined the faculty at her alma mater, Douglass High School, where she taught for 13 years.

“There’s nothing like that first teaching experience when you see your name above the door and you have made it. Douglass was always more to its alumni than just a school or a job. It was a way of life. Our day at school didn’t end at four o’clock when the bell rang. It ended only when we felt that we had me the needs of each child for that day.”

Then, in 1965, school integration resulted in the closure of Douglass High School and Wynn’s move to Lawton High School, where she was its first African-American teacher. One year later, she was invited to apply for a faculty position at Cameron, recalling that she actually taught at Cameron for six months before she was given an application to complete. Once again, she was the first African-American faculty member.

“Somewhere along the way it came to me that color outweighed credentials in this rapidly changing environment. But I had always wanted to teach at a university.”

At that time, she learned that she needed at least 21 hours above a master's degree to be qualified for further employment, as Cameron was in the process of becoming a four-year institution. In 1976, she returned to OSU at the age of 46 to pursue a Ph.D., where she became the first full-time student in the new doctoral program in English.

Wynn was a valued faculty member at Cameron University for 19 years.

“I felt I had found my niche. My experience at Cameron fulfilled every dream I ever had of success in life. It was the answer to my prayers – the fulfillment of my hopes and dreams.”

She co-founded CU’s Ebony Society (now the Black Student Association) and directed the Miss Black CU Pageant for nine years. In 1985, the pageant was renamed in her honor. Her many honors include the Cameron University Distinguished Service Award, the university’s highest honor, and induction in the CU Alumni Association Faculty Hall of Fame.

Wynn’s stellar career wasn’t limited to teaching. She became the first African-American to serve on the Board of Regents of Oklahoma Colleges in 1986, where she served as president from 1988-89. In 1993, she was honored by the President’s Council of Regional Universities for meritorious service, and in 1996, she was inducted into the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame. In 2005, she was inducted into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame.

She was actively involved in Alpha Kappa Alpha and Phi Kappa Phi, and was a member of the Board of Directors for the Lawton Public Schools Foundation. Additionally, she was involved in Sen. David Boren’s Foundation for Excellence and the State Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Commission.

Wynn was predeceased by her husband, Phail Wynn Sr., son Phail Wynn Jr., and daughter, Patricia Phaye Wynn. She is survived by son Michael Wynn and his wife Cheryl, daughter-inlaw Peggy Wynn, and one grandson, Rahsaan Wynn.

- Janet E. Williams