Celebrating Women's History Month - Ruth Cannon Pritchard

By Emily Banks Wooten
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(Editor’s Note: This is the second of a multi-part series celebrating Women’s History Month by recognizing the service, contributions and achievements of some of Polk County’s finest.)

Ruth Cannon Pritchard (Jan. 23, 1910-May 3, 2006) was born on Jan. 23, 1910 to S.J. Cannon and Pattie Willis Cannon. She was a 5th generation resident of Livingston from the longest residing family in the town who came there in 1858. She attended the Livingston Public Schools and graduated at age 16 in 1926. She then graduated from the College of Industrial Arts (T.W.U.) in 1929 with a B.S. degree in English and Spanish. She received her M.A. degree from Sam Houston State University in 1950. She married her late husband, Judge V. H. Pritchard, on June 6, 1934 in Livingston.

She taught over 7,000 students in the Livingston Independent School District in her 42-year career. On her teaching career she said, “I have always felt that no human contact can give greater satisfaction than teaching school. It’s a most rewarding profession if you love children and love to guide their lives.”

She later became the City of Livingston’s municipal court judge, a position she held for 16 years. She was a charter member of the Gleaners Sunday School Class of Central Baptist Church of Livingston and a member of the First United Methodist Church of Livingston. She was a member of the Delta Epsilon Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

She and her husband were the proud parents of Patricia Pritchard Alexander, Cannon H. Pritchard and S. Judson Pritchard.

The Ruth Cannon Pritchard Endowed Scholarship Fund in Education was established at Baylor University in 2009 by her son Cannon in memory of his mother.