New TAMU Central Texas head shares passion for education while honoring mother who went missing in 1989

KILLEEN, Texas (KWTX) – The new govt director for scholar success, fairness and inclusion at A&M Central Texas is sharing her passion for larger education while honoring her mother who went missing greater than 3 many years in the past. When you see Stephanie Legree-Roberts behind the desk at Warrior Hall it’s onerous to imagine she endured a childhood of abuse from her father, the lack of her mother and uncertainty for her future.

Stephanie spent her youthful years in a home crammed with horror and an absence of hope and her father’s alcohol induced abuse compelled them right into a lifetime of wrestle. She says he was a naturally scary individual, continuously retaining them on edge however that her mother nonetheless did what she might to offer a considerably regular childhood.

“She was doing the very best that she could. She was still finding a way to put clothes on our back and working three to four jobs at a time,” Roberts recollects.

She provides that she will be able to now see, as an grownup, why her mother felt like she couldn’t depart her father and regardless that it was obvious her mother had misplaced religion in her personal future she was nonetheless pushing her kids to need extra in life.

Because of her dwelling life circumstances, Stephanie began to fall behind in college evaluating it to strolling by way of quicksand. But by her senior yr, she had fallen too far behind to catch up so she determined to drop out. She nonetheless remembers the look on her mother’s face when she instructed her.

“I remember her being incredibly disappointed that I wasn’t going to graduate, and it just killed me to see that look on her face because she’s gone now so she doesn’t know that I tried to fix it,” Roberts mentioned with tears in her eyes.

She says her mother was sassy and so vigorous however that her father by no means really let her mother stay. As Stephanie and her siblings received older they began to speak with their mother about plans for leaving their scenario, however that day by no means truly got here. That’s as a result of Stephanie’s mother, Viola, disappeared the yr after Stephanie dropped out of highschool.

“The minute she starts trying to do something for herself, she has a job she loves and friends she feels good about, it’s over,” she remembers.

She spent months making an attempt to analyze and get assist discovering Viola and was sure that her disappearance was on the hand’s of her father and his household was concerned. She recollects her father telling police that Stephanie had one thing to do with it which led police to launch an investigation in to her. This additional proved to her that she was putting blame on the correct folks. However, throughout this time of grief she says she additionally discovered her likelihood to develop.

“Suddenly, my motivation kicked in and I was working two to three jobs and doing anything I could to stay out of trouble,” Stephanie says.

While looking for herself, she was persevering with to look for solutions on what occurred to her mother however when she began digging deeper into Viola’s disappearance, her world was flipped the wrong way up.

“My grandma said ‘I’m taking you to work,’ so she took me to the video store, drops me off and says ‘I won’t be picking you back up, I’ll bring you some stuff,’ she said ‘you can’t come back to my house,” Stephanie remembers.

This compelled her to spend each penny she had earned since she began working to make sure she had a roof over her head. She had her cousin carry her all the cash she had that was saved in just a little field, and he or she used it to hire a room out of one other girl’s dwelling. She says that regardless that she felt like she was in quicksand she nonetheless needed to do extra along with her life.

Before her mother had disappeared she advisable that Stephanie get her GED, in order that’s what she did. While working in the direction of her GED, she began filling out school purposes hoping that it will restore her religion in her future. With her purposes she included a heartfelt letter explaining her life and scenario, sadly due to her academic background she was principally met with rejection. However she wasn’t letting go of her dream to be one thing greater than a on line casino employee, which is the trail most individuals in her hometown took when in this case. Her persistence finally paid off as a result of she lastly received the response she was longing from for from Pace University in Pleasantville, New York.

“I got a letter back from their admissions office, and I’m reading what this lady is saying and she’s telling me that she really enjoyed my letter and that they’re excited to hear about my interests and want to know more about me and she asked if I could call her,” Stephanie explains.

She says that cellphone name performed a pivotal half in altering the course of her life, and provides that out of all of the letters she acquired again that was the one one to supply a way of hope for her future.

During this cellphone name, Stephanie discovered that she must do a lot than simply get her GED and that she was going to must discover a technique to get a highschool diploma. So that’s what Stephanie did, for two years she went to work and got here dwelling to her tiny room and studied. She says the second she came upon she was accepted she was shocked and really couldn’t imagine that each one her work had lastly paid off.

Her religion in herself had been restored, however her household wasn’t satisfied. She was dwelling along with her mother’s brother in New York the summer time earlier than her first semester, who she needed to show to that she had even been accepted. She says she understands it now as a result of her mother’s household wasn’t folks she knew properly because of the distance her father compelled between them. It took many miles walked, trains traveled and buses ridden to get her to her new starting, however she was capable of step on campus for her freshman yr with some newfound confidence.

After her mother’s disappearance and being compelled to maneuver in along with her father’s mother, her grandmother, a whole lot of her private gadgets she was compelled to depart behind. And with the dearth of monetary safety out there to her, she continuously felt a beat behind her friends. Stephanie introduced every part she needed to her identify which was not more than a coat, some footwear, and her cassette tapes all which her being carried inside her solely pillowcase.

“I was about to be 21, and there’s my three 18-year-old roommates. And the room was packed with parents, little brothers and sisters, and these big shopping bags filled with blankets and comforters and lamps and rugs,” Stephanie says, “And I remember just looking around the room at all this awesome chaos and thinking this is gonna suck,” Stephanie says while choking up.

She reminded herself of why she was there however seeing her roommates with their households made her really feel like she was missing an vital half to this journey. But she did what she knew she needed to do, she persevered all the way in which to commencement day. In her 4 years at Pace she had turn out to be a mentor, a tutor, homecoming queen and even senior class president.

“I was able to reinvent myself, I was able to find a way to experience and discover what I always knew was available to me but I didn’t know how I was going to access it,” she explains.

She says she credit her educators that by no means gave up on her and now she is ready to pay it ahead to her college students.

“I always try to encourage them and remind them that these problems are only temporary if you stick with it,” she says.

And now she is ready to higher perceive college students irrespective of their path and assist them discover hope and restore their religion in themselves all while honoring her mother each step of the way in which.

Fast ahead 30 years nearly to do the day of her disappearance and Viola received her identify again. Stephanie says her and her siblings labored with NAMUS on the University of North Texas and Charlie’s Project to find her and discover out what occurred. Viola had died from strangulation and was truly discovered in Harlem, New York, two hours away from the place they lived in New Jersey, the day after she disappeared. Viola spent three many years as a Jane Doe as a result of nobody ever got here ahead to assert her, however now she has a reputation and residential as soon as once more.

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