‘I needed them' Vermilion Parish woman retires after teaching generations of families over 55 years
Kay Dehart always knew she wanted to help people. She quickly ruled out nursing as a potential career field — she hates blood — but thought teaching would be just the ticket.
"Even in high school I wanted to be a teacher," she said. "My goal was helping people, and I just knew I could help students."
She was right. Dehart, 77, impacted thousands of students over her 55 years in Vermilion Parish classrooms. The veteran educator retired June 1.
"If you go back to classes 40 years ago, 20 years ago, and ask who was your best teacher, they would say Kay Dehart," Greg Dubois said.
He knows from experience. He was one of her first students, an eighth-grader at Mount Carmel (now Vermilion Catholic) in Abbeville, where Dehart started her teaching career. It also was her alma mater.
"I think I am who I am today because of her," Dubois said.
He admits he was a disruptive student, and she was a firm but loving teacher. She was always clear that the behavior was bad, not the person, a lesson he kept with him as he became an educator.
"She impacted me throughout all my career," he said. "She said, 'I love you for who you are, but I don't like what you're doing.' She still dealt with students that way."
Dubois recently with Dehart as dean of students at J.H. Williams Middle School in Abbeville, where she taught English language arts for the last 34 years.
"She always tried to pull the best out of the kid," he said. "She instilled in them, 'You've got to learn, and I see more in you than you're producing.'"
'God, send me where you need me the most'
Dehart taught two years at Mount Carmel and then 19 years at Maltrait Memorial Catholic School in Kaplan. In the 1980s she traveled with others from her church to Medjugoreje, an area in Bosnia-Herzegovina where the Virgin Mary was said to be appearing.
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While on the trip she prayed, "God, send me where you need me the most." She felt guided to teach at J.H. Williams, a middle school with a high population of students considered "at-risk" of failing or dropping out of school.
She remained there for more than three decades, teaching former students' children and even grandchildren, she said, and of course, working with former students like Dubois.
"You just don't know where life is going to lead you," she said.
Dehart felt called not only to J.H. Williams but to middle-schoolers, teaching fifth through eighth grades over her career.
"They're transitioning," she said. "They need to understand that you care. I always had the philosophy that when I taught you, you were mine forever."
'As much as the kids needed me, I needed them'
Dehart and her husband had planned on both retiring at 65. But he became ill about age 50 and died 10 years later.
The class she was teaching at the time was there for her, several of the students coming to support her at the funeral.
"I knew I couldn't retire because as much as the kids needed me, I needed them," she said. "They helped me so much to get through the worst. I enjoyed going to school because I knew I would see them."
That class gave her a little bottle with a piece of paper inside. The bottle is marked with a cross and instruction to put all your troubles inside.
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She still has it 26 years later. She recently brought the gift home with her after clearing out her classroom for the last time.
"I need that," she said. "Now where am I going to put it?"
Dehart made the decision to finally retire this year after hanging on through the tumultuous times of COVID-19 and virtual instruction. She felt like now was the right time.
What's next for Mrs. Dehart?
She was surprised by two retirement parties — one at school and another at home with family and friends.
Her immediate attention is going toward sorting through gifts so she can send thank-you cards and figuring out how to merge decades' worth of classroom materials with household items.
"I need to straighten up my house," she said. "I threw away six big trash cans of stuff, but I had to bring home the personal things."
She brought home the little bottle, of course, as well as a sign her husband made to hang in her classroom 34 years ago.
Dehart stays in touch with former students through Facebook or when she inevitably runs into them at Wal-Mart.
"That's all my babies," she said. "I had the greatest time with all these kids. It's been not long, but a long 55 years. It just went by so fast."
With more free time now, Dehart plans to do volunteer work and continue to listen for God's guidance.
"Wherever God sends me, I'll go," she said, adding, "but I'm not substituting."
Contact children's issues reporter Leigh Guidry at Lguidry@theadvertiser.com or on Twitter @LeighGGuidry.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Vermilion Parish teacher retires after 55 years of impacting students
