Delphine Feminear Thomas

Delphine Feminear was born in Bay Minette, Alabama, the daughter of Joseph Feminear and Delphine Byrne Feminear. She graduated from Troy State Normal School in 1910.[1][2] She attended a summer program for teachers at the University of Alabama in 1914.[3]

Feminear was a high school teacher in rural Pike County, Alabama as a young woman.[4][5] In 1913 she became principal of a school in Edgewater, a mining community near Birmingham.[6] In 1915 she presented a paper on "Homes for Rural Teachers", and was elected vice president of the Alabama Educational Association, and the association's meeting in Montgomery.[7] From 1919 Thomas was an assistant in the English department at Auburn University.[8][9] While at Auburn, she volunteered as a nurse during the 1918 flu pandemic.[10] She taught junior high school at the Marietta Johnson School of Organic Education in Fairhope in 1930.[11]

Thomas organized Auburn's first Girl Scout troop and the first girls' 4-H Club programs,[12] and was active in politics,[13] the Alabama Congress of Parents and Teachers,[14] Auburn Methodist Church, and American Red Cross work.[15][16] Her 1938 essay, "Some Facts About the Alabama Poll Tax Laws", was printed in newspapers statewide.[17][18] She served on the Alabama State Personnel Board from 1941 to 1953.[19][20][21] "She has made herself a place in the grateful affections of thousands who live in the rural districts on account of her work with canning clubs and in supervising rural schools," according to a 1916 report.[22]

In 1916, Delphine Feminear married engineering professor Albert Lee Thomas (1885–1963). They had a son, Albert Lee Thomas Jr. (1923–1996), and a daughter, Delphine Thomas Cain.[20][23] She died in Auburn in 1963, a few weeks after her husband, aged 72 years.[24][25] In 1977, Thomas was nominated for the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame, as a notable educator and community leader.[16]

• Delphine Feminear Thomas at Find a Grave