Last month, Rosemarie Howerton earned a bachelor’s degree in workforce education and development at the winter commencement of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. She earned her bachelor’s degree 67 years after graduating from high school. Howerton will celebrate her 86th birthday on January 20.
Howerton was born in 1930. After graduating from high school, she got a job as a clerk typist in a condenser factory. She worked at several other factories and then was employed as an auditor for the Department of Justice. In the late 1950s, Howerton began to take classes two nights a week at Southern Illinois University. But she got married and never completed her studies. She retired in 1988.
After undergoing triple heart-bypass surgery five years ago, Howerton began to take classes at John A. Logan College in Carterville. In 2014, she had accumulated enough college credits to enroll at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale as a junior.
Now a college graduate, Howerton will continue to perform volunteer work and take additional classes at Southern Illinois University. “I want to impress on people that education is very important if you are going to be successful,” Howerton said.