Thelma Kay Hall, age 80, of Oscoda, died on Thursday, August 17, 2023, at Jamieson Nursing Home in Harrisville. She was born the daughter of Shirley and Vernon Smith on January 29, 1943, in Pontiac, Michigan.
From her youth onward, Thelma was a strong-minded person. Her parents began to see these traits, even when she was very young. Her experiences in the primary grades in Utica (Michigan) Community Schools often included glowing reports on classroom progress from her various teachers – and she rarely, if ever, received a grade lower than the top levels available. In 1959, when Thelma was 16, the family moved from their Shelby Township residence to their summer home on Van Ettan Lake in Oscoda. Her single-mindedness was apparent throughout the years of a college preparedness curriculum at Oscoda High School, which included the more difficult courses like chemistry, physics and algebra. Once, when her mother inquired about how she was able to maintain all A’s without ever bringing work home, Thelma simply said, “I get it done at school.” While family members withheld comment, no one had thought such a feat was possible.
In June, 1961, Thelma delivered the final valedictory address at the historic high school edifice in downtown Oscoda. It was the last high school graduation speech ever given in that building. By autumn, a new and more modern structure was available on River Road west of the city.
She enrolled at Michigan State University, with the tentative goal of heading for a career in food chemistry. Upon graduation in 1965, however, the word was out that the Oscoda Area Schools were urgently seeking teachers to guide classrooms filled with incoming military young persons from the growing Wurtsmith Air Force Base. Thelma decided to try out a career as a teacher, with the thought that she could return to her original goal if things did not work out. She decided to stay on as an educator because she found that there was a huge sense of accomplishment when elementary aged children began to thrive under her tutelage.
On December 28, 1968, Thelma married the man who was to be her husband and father to her children over the next 55 years. In an evening ceremony at Oscoda Methodist Church, Thelma exchanged vows with Harold E. Hall of Harrisburg, PA. While the candles had been lit for a romantic ceremony, the edifice was only half filled with guests. The few persons who had dared to venture into the roaring blizzard were finding difficulty locating parking places where the fifteen or more inches had fallen into drifts. Opening car doors had been troublesome for a few.
In 1969, the couple moved to Tulsa, OK, where Harold attended a technical school. Thelma taught in the Tulsa schools until 1971, when their daughter Elisabeth Ann Hall was born. The family returned to Oscoda and Thelma resumed teaching in the school district. She was to remain there until her retirement in 2005.
In 1982, Thelma learned of a late-in-life pregnancy. Doctors warned her that the possibility of the baby boy experiencing life-long learning disabilities. She kept a diary of her sometimes disturbing thoughts. The baby was born healthy and happy. He received his education at Michigan State University, as his mother had done. His name and his mother’s name have been preserved on a plaque at Oscoda High School, commemorating that both had been valedictorians in the school system. Today, at age 40, Bradley Devin Hall is a metallurgical engineer for a Rhode Island manufacturing concern.
In addition to her immediate family – Harold, Elisabeth and Bradley – Thelma is survived by several grandchildren, and a sister, Gayle E. Jocks of Midland; and a brother, Joel V. Smith of Tawas City.
Per her request, Thelma’s body has been cremated and the family will choose a suitable resting place sometime in 2024.
