• That Good Old Baylor Bloodline

    On Aug. 13, 2016, April Clanton (pictured above in the Baylor shirt) graduated from BU with a degree in communication sciences and disorders. The milestone was celebrated by her brother, mom, grandparents — and, no doubt, the dozens upon dozens of Baylor alumni in her family’s history.

    April’s family includes more than 60 relatives who have graduated from Baylor University — and that’s just the ones they’ve been able to track down. There’s April’s mother and her two sisters, who spent the entire span of the 1980s at Baylor. Their uncle, Dr. Bill T. Adams, Jr., BA ’61, MS ’62, was a longtime Baylor physics professor and is the family’s historian and genealogist. His father, Bill Adams, Sr., BS ’21, MS ’22, met his wife, Irene Kitchen, BA ’24, at Baylor; all six of their children attended Baylor.

    On April’s father’s side, her great uncle John Truitt Adams, BS ’52, spent most of his life as a missionary in Tanzania and Kenya. Two of his children, twins Linda and Cinda, both graduated in 1983 with nursing degrees; Linda is now a sexual assault nurse examiner, and Cinda has won numerous gold medals for track and written a memoir about growing up as a “missionary kid” in Africa. April’s father’s parents are among the few who didn’t graduate from BU — but in 1990, they were welcomed into the Baylor family as Alumni by Choice.

    The family’s love for BU goes back more a century to its first graduate, Wade Hill Pool, BA 1887, MA 1907. His studies actually began at Waco University, before Baylor moved from Independence and merged with the school. From 1892 to 1920, he was dean of the Baylor Academy, then one of three segments of the university.

    “The list goes on and on,” says April’s mother, Dr. Laura Wright, BS ’85, MS ’90, EDD ’94, says. “The lyrics from That Good Old Baylor Line that say:

    ‘We’ll march forever down the years
    As long as stars shall shine
    We’ll fling our Green and Gold afar
    To light the ways of time
    And guide us as we onward go’ —

    “Those lyrics are embodied in our family. Sic ’em, all you Baylor Bears!”

    Next in line, the family hopes? April’s own two daughters, ages 11 and 14.

    Sic ’em, Baylor family!

    [We learned of this story from a Bear who shared her Baylor pride. Do you know of an inspiring story, news item, or just a fun link that makes you proud of Baylor and the Baylor family? Let us know! Click here to submit your point of pride!]