At the age of 90, Minnie Payne, an American woman, achieved a historic milestone by obtaining a master's degree in interdisciplinary studies. Last weekend, she stood alongside thousands of fellow graduates at the University of North Texas to commemorate the completion of their academic journeys. Remarkably, Minnie Payne holds the distinction of being the oldest UNT student to finish her coursework.
"My grandson will accompany me across the stage," Minnie Payne told CBS News.
"Of course it's a long story. My mother and father were uneducated textile workers. We were poor."
She graduated with her master's in interdisciplinary studies 73 years after she graduated from high school.
As per a release by the University of North Texas Her journey to the commencement stage is a lengthy one that began in the impoverished South Carolina textile-mill community where she was raised. The child of uneducated mill workers, she graduated high school in 1950 and briefly attended junior college before beginning work as a clerk at a real estate firm.
Minnie married her late husband, Dale, in 1961. She worked as a court reporter for the South Carolina Industrial Commission until the couple's two children were born. After several years as a stay-at-home mother, she returned to the workforce as a substitute teacher. At 68, Minnie retired from her 30-year career as a transcriptionist and word processor and enrolled at Texas Woman's University. As part of her undergraduate programme, she also took a trio of journalism classes and a business course at the UNT campus.
"I always wanted to improve myself," Ms Payne said. "When I retired at age 68, I wasn't doing anything constructive, and it's my philosophy to constantly be doing something constructive."
"I was 73 when I earned my undergraduate degree," she said. "They treated me like I was one of them. They treated me with respect, and I respected them."
