Marcel Normand pens biography on Lucile James

“The Lucile James Story: Portrait of a Remarkable Teacher”

Mr. Normand authored this informal biography of a teacher and friend who changed his life and that of his family. Normand is a retired social science instructor from FSCC and also taught at Colgan High School in Pittsburg, KS and at Liberal High School in Liberal, MO.
 

Normand first met Lucile James when they were hired in 1960 to teach at Fort Scott High School. She was born in Pleasanton, KS and had taught in three other high schools. Normand, with only a year of teaching experience said, “We became good friends early and that later included our families. She helped me become a more effective teacher and, in time, her wise counsel served as a guiding force in my life, in and out of the classroom.”

She told Normand that teaching was one quarter preparation and three quarters theatre. “With her, Normand said, “each day was a performance and she loved it.” One of her students told Normand that she had “energy in each strand of her red hair.”

Along with her passion for teaching, she endured successful heart surgery in the 1970’s and brain cancer in the 1980’s. The brain cancer eventually took her life when she was 77 years old. Normand adds, “I knew I would write her story some day for I had never known anyone like her.”’