Graveside services were held Saturday, June 8, 1996, in the Dickens Cemetery at 2 p.m. for Jo Dunn Perrin. Rev. Keith Carver, officiated.Arrangements were by Graham's Mortuary, Las Cruces and Campbell Funeral Home, Spur.
She died June 6 in Las Cruces, NM at the Good Samaritan Nursing Center. She was born in Etowah, Tennessee on October 1, 1906 to David H. and Mary Reynolds Dunn.
Her family moved to Dickens in 1908. She attended schools in that area and graduated from Croton High School. Following graduation she enrolled at North Texas State Teachers College in Denton, for one year.
She returned to Dickens and at the age of 17 began her teaching career that was to last a total of 48 years. She taught elementary grades in the two room school at Croton while attending Texas Tech University in Lubbock and working during the summers. She also took correspondence courses from Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene and Wayland Baptist University.
In 1935, she earned her BS degree in Education for Texas Tech. The following 19 years she taught first through fourth grades at Dickens School.
In 1944, Jo married a long time friend, Bill Perrin and moved to Las Cruces where she began teaching at Mesilla School. She taught first, second and fifth grades for the next 29 years until her retirement in 1963. During her teaching career at Mesilla School, she earned a Master Teacher Elementary Life Certificate in 1949 and her Masters Degree in 1953 from NMSU.
Jo "specialized" in teaching communication skills to Spanish-American children. For her outstanding efforts in teaching, she was chosen to receive the Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge's Classroom Teachers Medal in 1961. She was inducted into the Southwest District Teacher's Hall of Fame in 1976.
She was a member of the First Baptist Church in Las Cruces.
Jean Carver, a close family friend, survives her, as there were no living relatives.
©The Texas Spur, June 1996
From the records of Thelma Scott
© Dickens County Historical Commission 1997-2022
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