When the summer and fall 2024 University of Tennessee at Martin graduates walk the line to receive their diplomas Dec. 14, there will be one graduate who stands out among the rest.
She has a tinge of blue in her light-colored hair, she has excitement in her voice and a gleam in her eye when she talks about her classes – and she’s 79.
Linda “Lin” Schaefer, who turns 80 in November, will receive her bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies after officially graduating last August.
“The journey has been a long journey,” she said – and so it has.
Schaefer’s collegiate resume begins when she was living in Michigan, where she attended a community college.
“Living in Michigan, I went to Lansing Community College, and I was a town librarian for a while and I was a county librarian for a while because I’m a reader,” she said. “I have a library in my house.”
Schaefer and her husband later moved to West Tennessee from Michigan, back to her parents’ roots. Her mother was born in Gleason and her father was born in Greenfield.
“Daddy was one of the many who went up North to work,” she said. “He retired after 36 years at the factory, and he was going to move to Greenfield, but his brother was already in Bradford, so they bought a house in Bradford.
“We would come down to visit them, and on one of those visits, we decided to go out for a drive with the kids to get them out of the house, and we looked around and thought, ‘This is a nice place.’ I thought it would be nice to be close to Mama, and we found a nice house to move to.”
Schaefer has three sons – Daniel, Darren and Willie – and two daughters, Lori and Lisa. However, when she was 51, she became a widow.
“I was working full-time and my youngest son, Willie, was 16,” she said. “Right after high school, he came here (to UT Martin). I said, ‘I want you to have the college experience.’
“So, I did a few more years (of college) and said, ‘I think I’m going to start doing part-time (classes).’ So, I was working full-time and doing classes part-time.”
Schaefer would take a class or two at a time for several years before moving to Florida for 10 years, coming back to Kenton in Obion County in 2017.
“Within a year or so, I started auditing classes,” she said. “I was at the age where I could do that for free.
“When I was here doing the part-time stuff, there was a wonderful professor here named Stan Sieber, and he did the travel study program, and I did the travel study. I traveled all over the world. My youngest son lived in Japan for a while, so I even got to go to Japan.”
Schaefer also traveled to Ireland, England, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Austria through the UTM Travel Study program.
Schaefer audited classes for two or three years before graduation.
“This past spring, I said, ‘Do I need to do this?’ and talked to myself about it,” she said. “I knew what I had to have to graduate, and it was going to be algebra. I’d never taken algebra in my life, so I was scared.
“It was hard, different. I went in during the first week, and it was like learning a new language. A young man named Hunter Johnson tutored me – there was a young lady first, and she was good – but Hunter sat me down and went step by step by step. He didn’t give me the answers; he made me work at it.”
Willie graduated from UT Martin in 2002 and works as an educator, graphic designer and digital artist at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He offered her good advice: Go to class early, let the teachers know you and you get to know them and go to them during office hours.
Schaefer said she had a lot of support from several people on campus, and that is what helped her decide to take that final step toward the diploma.
“I’ve had a lot of cheerleaders,” she said. “This school has given me a lot of them. So, I decided, ‘Yeah – let’s do this.’
“It wasn’t easy, when you come in here from June 3 until Aug. 9, five days a week, and then, you have other responsibilities for your other two days.”
Schaefer is most interested in history and art; even after meeting the requirements for graduation in August, she is auditing a History of Pop Culture class this fall.
Schaefer said that UT Martin has become a family tradition for her.
Not only did her sons Daniel and Willie go to UT Martin, but she has four grandchildren who attended or are attending UTM as well. Her son Daniel’s children – Jessica, Daniel and Michael – went to UT Martin, and her son Darren’s son Dylan is currently attending UTM.
“I love this campus,” Schaefer said. “I’m so proud of this area to have this school here. You are very fortunate to have this school here.”
Taking college courses over the years has helped Schaefer stay mentally fit.
“You’ve got to keep your mind,” she said. “I also like walking. My thing is: You’ve got to use your mind and use your body. I’m not going to be that old lady who sits in a chair.
“I’ve had people say, ‘Why? Why are you doing this to yourself? Are you going to get a job?’ and I say, ‘I’m doing it for me,’ but I’m also doing it for my kids and grandkids and great-grandkids to show them that you can do whatever you want at whatever age you want to do it in. It’s better to do it earlier, but you can do this.”
Perhaps the experiences surrounding going to college are even more fascinating than taking the classes themselves.
“I got to take a class with my youngest son.” she said. “It was a history class, and I told him, ‘If you don’t want me here –‘ and he said, ‘No, Mom, it’s fine.’ I even took an art class with one of my grandsons. That’s fantastic! How many people can say that?”
Schaefer is excited to take the History of Pop Culture class this semester.
“I’ve done German culture, I did Japanese culture,” she said. “I did the History of Graphic Design – there have been several other ones.
“I pick out something I’m interested in. I’m a history buff and an art person, so that’s the ones I pick out.”
Schaefer has had a busy work life as well before retiring and pursuing a degree, working in a factory, restaurants and convenience stores.
“Nothing big,” she admitted, “but to help out. Sometimes, with a family, it takes the two of you to work. I did enjoy the factory in McKenzie. I’ve been gone a long, long time from there, but I still have friends there.”
Schaefer said she wants people not to feel like they can’t finish a degree or do any achievement because it’s “too late.”
“I met a young man in Clement Hall and he said, ‘Can I help you with something?’” she said. “I told him what happened, and he said, ‘Oh, you graduated. I am seriously thinking about coming back. My daughter is a senior in high school.’
“I said, ‘Do that – if not for you, do that for her to show her.’ I want to tell anyone, ‘If you want this, you can do this.’ To me, it’s been such an important thing for me – and my family, too; I did this for them, too.’
Schaefer said she and her family joke about getting a diploma at age 79.
“They say, ‘Mom, you could have done this younger,’” she said. “But, maybe I wasn’t ready. Maybe I had to be this age to be ready to do this again.”
Now that she has earned her diploma, Schaefer said she wants to just sit back and enjoy her life.
“I live with three dogs, and they love me and I love them,” she said. “I’ve got a daughter who lives seven houses down from me, and she has MS (multiple sclerosis), so I’m her transportation. So, we’ll get out and do. My daughter is already planning a par-tay.”
Schaefer said the road has been difficult, but she stayed on course.
“Sometimes, it was hard and I would get down,” she said. “I never was going to give up; that thing never came to my mind. But, somebody cheering you on makes you want to take that one more step, then that one more step, then that one more step.”
In “Tao Te Ching,” Lao Tzu says that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Lin Schaefer said that her journey toward getting her college degree was a long one, but she completed that journey the same way she will walk the graduation stage Dec. 14 to receive that diploma: one step at a time.
PHOTO: Lin Schaefer is shown in her History of Pop Culture class in August, just two weeks after she completed requirements for her bachelor’s degree. Schaefer took classes at UT Martin over many years and graduated after the summer term. She will receive her diploma in a ceremony held Dec. 14.
