Dr. Linda Raughton

"My curriculum vitae may tell what all I have accomplished, but my life work
demonstrates my passion for teaching."

As students gingerly turn the pages of a now, yellowed scrapbook that spans fifty something years and symbolizes the life of Dr. Raughton, they discover "Big Jim" Folsom was governor on the hot summer day she was born in LaFayette, Alabama. Although this was only her birthplace, another town, somewhat bucolic, became her hometown: Roanoke, the home of the Ella Smith dolls. The worn pages of the scrapbook reveal her first years of spending time in front of a new black and white television equipped with rabbit ears, watching "Howdy Doody," "Captain Kangaroo," and "Roy Rogers."

Dr. Raughton considers herself fortunate to have had a grandfather who was principal and teacher of a one-room school, aunts and sisters who became teachers, an uncle who was a surgeon, and a cousin who was a professor at The University of Alabama. A distant cousin is a famous chef, and a niece is the editor of a Birmingham magazine.

She also marvels that she lives in the same home state as Kate Jackson, Courtney Cox, Rebecca Luker, Heather Whitestone, Ruben Studdard, and Condoleezza Rice. Dr. Raughton is proud to own paintings by Alabama artists, Butch Lonergan and Wayne Spradley, pottery by Tom Jones, and memories of epicurean delight at the Birmingham restaurants of distant cousin and well-known chef, Frank Stitt.

Although her life is firmly rooted in humble surroundings, her journeys have been numerous. Yes, she is proud to be a Southerner and would not trade her home state of Alabama--a state that offers famous people as well as special friends, infinite tourist attractions, mountains with breathtaking views, winding rivers, beautiful lakes, countless parks, white, sandy beaches, major cities, and those quaint, little towns with county fairs, homecoming parades, soda fountains, covered bridges, and weathered barns, draped with some of her grandfather's miracle plant, kudzu.