Helen Wilson (Johnson) Hafley |
| Posted 2009-01-27 by Judy Wight Branson |
| Arizona Daily Star, The (Tucson, AZ) - September 10, 1995 Helen Hafley, a former TUSD board member touted as one of its most energetic and influential members, died Friday after a recent stroke. She was 83. Hafley served as a member of the Tucson Unified School District board from 1964 to 1978 - aggressively leading the board as it confronted some of the district's most divisive issues, such as desegregation. Born in Prescott, Ariz. on May 25, 1912, the daughter of Samuel Grant and Olla Kay (Peters) Johnson. Hafley moved to Tucson in 1921 and graduated from Tucson High School in 1930. In 1936, she married Walter Hafley, a pharmacist who worked for Robert Taylor Jones, Arizona's sixth governor and owner of a downtown Tucson drug store. In 1953, the couple bought Jones Drug Co., which they operated for several decades. Sparked by interest in her son's education, Helen Hafley became active in the local PTA chapter. By the early 1960s, she had risen to president of the state Congress of Parents and Teachers. She led efforts supporting sex education in public schools and an equalization tax for school financing. She cut back her PTA activities in 1964 after friends convinced her to run for the TUSD school board. When Hafley entered the race, William R. Mathews, the publisher of The Arizona Daily Star at the time, declined to endorse her, calling her 'a nice little old lady in tennis shoes who has no place on the school board.' Despite a lack of endorsement in either of the city's newspapers, Hafley won the race and quickly became one of the board's most outspoken members. She went on to serve as board president. The TUSD board debated ways to desegregate after Hispanic and black families charged in a 1974 lawsuit that the district assigned minority students to schools with inferior education programs. 'It could have been disastrous, except that Mrs. Hafley was a master of working with people and kept the board working together despite their divisions,' said Thomas L. Lee, the district's superintendent from 1968 until 1977. She gained a reputation as being somewhat conservative when she opposed mandatory busing during the district's desegregation discussions. She and two other board members said they supported integration but favored alternatives to forced busing. Still, she remained a powerful driving force on the board. 'She served as kind of a glue that held the whole thing together,' Lee said. Hafley is survived by her husband, Walter Hafley of Tucson; a son, W. Grant Hafley of Cambridge, Ohio; a daughter-in-law, Patricia Hafley of Cambridge, Ohio; and one granddaughter. Visitation will be Monday from 4 to 7 p.m. at Bring's Memorial Chapel, 236 S. Scott Ave. Funeral services will be at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the chapel. Burial will follow at South Lawn Mortuary and Cemetery, 5401 S. Park Ave. |
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