ANDERSON, Indiana. (AP) — An Indiana woman who will turn 100 years old later this month has received her high school diploma more than eight decades after she originally was supposed to graduate.
Lora Lois LeMond White Hardy needed just four more credits to earn her diploma from Anderson High School in 1933 — at the height of the Great Depression — when she was forced to quit school and work at a company owned by General Motors to help support her family, which included seven younger siblings.
"I lacked four credits when my dad got sick," she said. "I got a job, and that was about as good as you could hope for back then."
Hardy initially worked on an assembly line making car horns. She retired from the automotive company more than 40 years later, in 1976.
"She has stated that her biggest regret in life is that she was not able to complete high school and earn her diploma," Superintendent Terry Thompson said.
Hardy, who lives in Florida, returned to central Indiana to receive her diploma. But she wasn't aware that a ceremony would be held to commemorate the occasion.
"I knew I was going to get the diploma, but I had no idea it would be all this," she said.
As Hardy sat in the front row of the board meeting, wearing a traditional cap and gown, Thompson presented her with a bouquet of flowers and the long-awaited certificate. Family, friends and other attendees stood and clapped as she read over the honorary diploma.
Hardy will celebrate her 100th birthday on May 28.
You are never too old to finish your education. Or to achieve your dream, whatever it is. Do it. Do it now.
