Anna Marie Sullivan Hork, an Influencer in my Life

My grandmother, Anna M. Hork, was sixty-two years old when I was born. I was the fifth grandchild of fifteen and my parents gave her six altogether. My dad’s two sisters gave her nine between them.

Anne, as she called herself, was a school teacher when she met my grandfather, William Cyril Hork. They married in 1922 and moved to Southern California. Likely, Cyril liked the climate that he experienced there when he was in training in San Diego and stationed in San Pedro during World War I.

Of course in those days, once married, women teachers became housewives. This she did until she and Cyril separated. Raising four children alone, she worked in coffee houses and cafes both in Southern California and later in Napa, where her brother-in-law, Vir Quigley urged her to move to. Because she had studied teaching in Montana, she had to return to school in California to be able to teach there. She attended San Francisco State and received a teaching credential.

Her teaching experience in Napa was in a one-room schoolhouse located on the Silverado Trail. I don’t know much about this experience, probably because I didn’t know about it before she died. Later, she moved to Concord with my dad because she got a job with the Mt. Diablo School District, teaching at Williams Elementary School.

Growing up with Nana, as we called her, was fun. For awhile, she lived across the street from us in Pittsburg, California. She was in one-half of a duplex. There was a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and a bedroom, all in a line. The living room had a Murphy bed, which was fun to sleep in. In the bookcases where lots of children’s books left over from Williams School, where she taught first grade. She loved to read to us and taught us lots of fun songs to sing, especially while we washed and dried dishes.

Whenever teachers asked us during elementary school days, I always said I wanted to be a teacher. At home during the summer vacation, I would set up school for my younger brothers and sisters. I drew pictures of classrooms and made pretend lists of students. When I got trolls in the 5th grade, I set them up in classrooms. I think I got this love of school from Nana and how she made it seem so easy to teach kids interesting things.

However, in college, I discovered I was too shy to be a teacher. I studied biological sciences and realized I’d be shorter than all the students if I taught high school. I didn’t want to study forever to get a PhD to teach in college. So, I went off in a different direction.

Fast forward, after years of working, I became less shy. I had two daughters and was their Girl Scout leader. I felt more comfortable around kids, so decided to go for that teacher credential. I found it wasn’t easy. I didn’t have that special gift my Nana had with children. But I discovered that I love to teach adults. That credential helped me get a job in the training department at my work and I went on to train hundreds of train operators and writing curriculum.

Now that I’m retired, I still write curriculum and train but now to genealogists. It’s the best of both worlds. I can thank my grandmother for instilling in me the love of learning and teaching.

#52Ancestors-Week 5: Influencer

This is my seventh year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/52ancestors52weeks/) at Generations Cafe. I write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

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