Hazel Abernathy has lived through 17 presidents, two World Wars, Pearl Harbor and the Depression. She has experienced more than what most people will in a lifetime and is the oldest living alumna of Nicholls. Abernathy was born Oct. 15, 1902 and lived in Magee, Miss. She graduated from a school in Hollandale, Mississippi, and on Sept. 1, 1921, she married William Abernathy. They had two daughters, Nellie and Peggy. Abernathy has 10 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and 4 great-great-grandchildren. She resides in Houma.

Growing up, Abernathy said she did not really feel the impact of the depression.

“My husband worked for the railroad, and he never was laid off or anything. As far as the Depression, it did not affect us much,” she said.

Abernathy lived in a railroad community and often fed people when they came in on trains looking for work and something to eat, she said.

“A lot of our friends’ families did hurt,” Abernathy said.

Abernathy began her time at Nicholls in 1957 and graduated in 1962. Back then, Nicholls consisted of only two buildings, the main building and the athletic building, she said.

“It was 1963 before I received my diploma, because they did not give them but once a year. I graduated in the summer time,” Abernathy said.

When Abernathy decided to attend Nicholls, she had to have her high school diploma. The school she attended had burned down and the principal had died, so to get an affidavit saying that she had attended high school, Abernathy got in touch with a member of the school board who remembered her, she said.

“We did not know where he was (the principal), so we had a time, but I got it and got in just fine. I did not have any trouble getting in,” she said.

Abernathy was 54 years old when she began attending Nicholls to attain her degree in education.

When she started, teachers were allowed to teach for two years before receiving their degrees. Teachers then went back to college to receive their degrees.

“By the time I graduated, I had four years of college and three years of teaching in those five years,” Abernathy said.

“I liked it. I took music along with my courses. We had a singing teacher, and I took exercise. I had to take an exercise program, we played tennis and everything.”

Abernathy took a bus to Nicholls every day to attend classes, she said.

“It was a lot cheaper to go then than it is now, because what I paid to go to college and what the children pay today is just outrageous,” she said.

“I think I paid $30 for each subject, and in the summer time, I think it was just $10. It was not much.”

Three years after the death of her husband, Abernathy decided to go back to school.

“I just wanted something to do. My daddy wanted me to come to Monroe and go into nurses’ training; Nellie wanted me to come down here and go to college to be a teacher, so I decided to come down here because I knew I could not spend the rest of my life doing nothing,” she said.

She said she enjoyed the friends she made and the class activities like tennis and volleyball that she participated in.

Nicholls had just become a four-year college when Abernathy attended, she said.

“I have not been there much, but I’m sure that the campus has really changed,” Abernathy said.

When Abernathy graduated, there was only about 25 to 30 others who graduated, and in each class, there were only 25 to 30, if that many, she said.

The hardest thing for Abernathy to remember was how to study again, she said.

She said she taught for 12 years at different schools including an Indian school.

“A couple of years ago, this older man came up to me at a wedding. He said, “You don’t remember me”.” He was one of the little Indian boys I taught over at the Indian school,” Abernathy said.

“He said “if it had not been for you, I do not know where I would have been today. You made my life.”

Abernathy said that experience made it all worth it.

Abernathy has traveled to nine countries in Europe, all over the United States and Canada.

“There are not many places that I could have been that I haven’t gone,” she said.

Abernathy said she enjoys being alive and able to do what she wants.

“I do a lot of crocheting, I play bridge twice a week, read and put together jigsaw puzzles. I am never idle,” she said.

“I do not have a secret [to life]. Clean living I guess. I never smoked and I never drank.”

Abernathy said her life was all worth it and she would not change a thing.