Author Archives: Terry Lee Marzell

About Terry Lee Marzell

Terry Lee Marzell holds a bachelor's degree in English from Cal State Fullerton and a master's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Cal State San Bernardino. She also holds a certificate for Interior Design Level 1 from Mt. San Antonio College. She has been an educator in the Corona Norco Unified School District for more than 30 years.

Adelaide Cumming, the iconic face of Betty Crocker, was also an English teacher

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The image of Betty Crocker, an American icon in the 1950’s, was actually Adelaide Cumming, an English teacher who taught English as a Second Language learners. Photo credit: General Mills

Betty Crocker was an icon of America womanhood in the 1950’s, but did you know the marketing image of the famous housewife was actually that of Adelaide Hawley Cumming, an English teacher?

This remarkable educator portrayed the fictional Betty Crocker on a weekly half-hour television show called The Betty Crocker Show. She also starred in walk-on commercials on the Burns & Allen Show, where comedian George Burns would say to his wife, “I don’t know how to bake a cake, Gracie, but here is Betty Crocker to show us how.”

Adelaide was born in 1905 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. A vaudeville performer and broadcast pioneer, Adelaide majored in piano and voice at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, New York. Following her graduation from college, she taught music for two and a half years at the Alabama College School of Music in Montevallo, Alabama.

From 1937 to 1950, the talented teacher was the host of the Adelaide Hawley Program, first on NBC radio and then on CBS. At the height of her career, Adelaide was a nationally recognized figure, second only to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. According to Adelaide’s daughter, Marcia Hayes, the teacher and actress was a feminist in her private life, and was not especially fond of cooking. “I am merely the manifestation of a corporate image,” she once told autograph-seeking fans. She practiced her autograph as Betty Crocker by copying the signature from the top of the cake mix box.

When General Mills replaced her with a more updated image in 1964, Adelaide went back to school, earning a doctorate in speech education from New York University in 1967. She taught English to second-language learners in Washington state until her death at age 93 in 1998, a career as an educator that spanned nearly thirty years.

To read more about the marketing of Betty Crocker, see this article entitled Betty Crocker: A Brief Biography.

Actress Kate Capshaw was once a Special Education teacher

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Famed actress Kate Capshaw of Indiana Jones fame is a former Special Education teacher from Texas. Photo Credit: Encyclopedia Britannica

Famed actress Kate Capshaw of Indiana Jones fame is a former Special Education teacher from Texas. Photo Credit: elcinema.com

Many talented educators have made their mark in fields other than education. This is certainly true of former teacher Kate Capshaw, a Hollywood actress who is best known for her portrayal of Willie Scott in the movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. She is famous as an actress in her own right, but she is also well-known for being married to famed director Steven Spielberg.

Kate was born on November 3, 1953, in Fort Worth, Texas, of humble origins. Her mother was a travel agent and beautician, and her father was an airline employee. When Kate was only five years old, her family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where in 1972 she graduated from Hazelwood Central High School.

After her high school graduation, Kate earned a Bachelor’s degree in History Education and a Master’s degree in Special Education, both from the University of Missouri. She accepted her first teaching position as a special education teacher at Southern Boone County High School in Ashland, Missouri. Later she transferred to Rock Bridge High School in Columbia, Missouri. During her years as an educator, she married and divorced Robert Capshaw, a school principal. The union produced one daughter.

After some years in the classroom, Kate moved to New York City to pursue a career in acting, landing her first role on the soap opera The Edge of Night. She also starred in Dreamscape in 1984, SpaceCamp in 1996, and How to Make an American Quilt in 1995. During the filming of Indiana Jones, Kate began a relationship with Spielberg, which eventually resulted in her conversion to Judaism and her marriage to the director in 1991. The couple have five children in addition to Kate’s daughter from her first marriage.

9/11: Honor and Remember

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We honor and remember these beloved educators who perished in the 9/11 attacks. All four were lost when Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon:

Sarah Clark, Backus Middle School, Washington, DC

James Debuneure, Ketcham Elementary School, Washington, DC

Barbara Edwards, Palo Verde High School, Las Vegas, Nevada

Hilda Taylor, Madeleine V. Leckie Elementary, Washington DC

Former teacher Lin-Manuel Miranda earns high acclaim with “Hamilton”

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Former junior high school teacher Lin-Manuel Miranda has earned high acclaim as a composer, lyricist, singer, actor, playwright, and producer. Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

Almost everyone has heard of composer, lyricist, singer, actor, playwright, and producer Lin-Manuel Miranda. He’s probably best known for creating and starring in the blockbuster Broadway musical Hamilton. But did you know that he was once a junior high school English teacher?

Lin-Manuel was born Jan. 16, 1980, in New York City, the son of Puerto Rican parents. His father, Luis Miranda, Jr., was a political consultant. His mother, Luz Towns-Miranda, was a clinical psychologist. Lin-Manuel has one sister, also named Luz. While Lin-Mnauel was growing up, his family lived in the Hispanic neighborhood of Inwood in Manhattan.

The Miranda children were raised in a musically-oriented family. Both siblings took piano lessons. The music of Broadway featured prominently in their home, but Lin-Manuel also developed an appreciation for hip-hop, including the music of the Beastie Boys, Boogie Down Productions, and Eric B. & Rakim.

During his pre-teen and teenage years, Lin-Manuel attended Hunter College’s elementary and high schools. During these years, he performed in student stage productions. Once he graduated from high school, he enrolled at Wesleyan University, where he majored in theater studies.

After college, Lin-Manuel accepted a position teaching English to seventh graders. He worked this capacity for one year. Then he became a substitute teacher at his alma mater, Hunter College High School. That’s where he was working when his musical In the Heights caught the interest of Broadway producers.

“Hunter had asked me to stay on to continue to teach part time,” the former teacher remembered. But here came a chance to follow his dreams on Broadway. He asked his father, “What should I do? Should I keep teaching or should I just kind of sub and do gigs to pay the rent, and really throw myself into writing full time?”

His father responded with a heartfelt letter. “I really want to tell you to keep the job—that’s the smart ‘parent thing’ to do—but when I was 17, I was a manager at the Sears in Puerto Rico. I basically threw it all away to go to New York, [and] I didn’t speak a lot of English. It made no sense, but it was what I needed to do,” Lin-Manuel recalled the letter said. “It makes no sense to leave your job to be a writer, but I have to tell you to do it,” the elder Miranda advised. “You have to pursue that if you want.” The former teacher’s success is, as they say, history.

Since then, Lin-Manuel has garnered three Grammy Awards, three Emmy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, and a MacArthur Fellowship. He was also honored at Kennedy Center in 2018.

To read more about the life of Lin-Manuel Miranda, follow this link to Biography.