Five Generations of Pirates

by Casi Thedford

In 1924, the very first Bozman family member graduated from Wylie High School. Exactly 100 years later, in May, another member of the family will walk the stage – marking the fifth consecutive generation to earn a diploma from Wylie High.

Four of those five generations share their stories about attending Wylie High School. The only story missing is from the one who started it all – Lionel “Skinner” Bozman, a member of Wylie High School’s Class of 1924. Skinner passed away in 1978.

The second generation to graduate from Wylie ISD is represented by Skinner’s daughter, Betty (Bozman) Housewright. At the age of 96, Betty is the only one remaining from the Class of 1944.

She still remembers every one of her 23 classmates, even the ones who didn’t graduate because they were deployed.

“Noble Birket went off and was killed in the war,” Betty said. “The war had ended and he didn’t know it. They were chasing Germans out of Holland.”

When she attended Wylie ISD in the late ’30s and early ’40s, there was only one school and a shop building.

“The grade school and high school were together in one building,” she said. “There were two stories. Frank McMillan was in charge of the shop.”

Assistant business manager of the annual staff, assistant reporter for the school’s newspaper, The Pirate’s Log, treasurer of her class, a member of the basketball and softball teams, Betty was an active member of her class.

Representing the third generation to graduate from Wylie High School is Elaine (Clark) Schraplau. Wylie High was UIL Class 1A when Elaine graduated in 1965 with 42 in her class.

She recalls taking home economics, where she had to make a suit.

Like her mom, Elaine played basketball and was selected as class favorite her freshman year.

Kate (Schraplau) Hilgeman, Elaine's daughter, represents the fourth generation of WHS graduates in this family.

The campus that is now known as Burnett Junior High was once Wylie High School. Kate’s Class of 1996 was the last to graduate from that school building before WHS relocated to its current location at FM 544 and Woodbridge Parkway.

Wylie was 4A and there were 137 students in Kate’s graduating class.

“Classes are so big now,” she said. “Kids don’t know all of their classmates anymore. Most I graduated with, I’ve known since kindergarten.”

Just like her mom and grandmother, Kate played basketball in high school, along with volleyball and tennis. She was in athletics and band her freshman year.

Kate was a member of the National Honor Society, was in the top 10 percent of her class, and was a Birmingham scholar.

Kate's daughter, Tanner Harris, will represent the fifth generation of Pirate alumni in her family, exactly 100 years after her great-great-grandfather received his diploma.

Tanner plays the French horn and the mellophone. Like her mom, she is a member of the National Honor Society.

In her fourth year at WHS, Tanner is still meeting people in her graduating class and reconnecting with friends from her past.

“It is crazy how many people I still haven't met and might never meet,” she said. “Many schools feed into Wylie High, making it possible to reunite with people I used to be close with.”

Now 6A, with 697 in the senior class, Wylie High School has grown significantly since Tanner’s great-greatgrandfather attended in the 1920s.

Wylie ISD has seen a lot of change over the last century, evolving from a single school building serving all grade levels to 20 different campuses today. However, amidst all this change, one constant remains: the enduring legacy of the Skinner Bozman family in Wylie ISD. •