Sara Helen Hair

Sara Helen Hair, teacher, died in Austin, Texas, on July 27, 2011. Born on March 18, 1917, in Crowville, Louisiana, she was the oldest child of Charles William Hair and Sadie Rawlings Hair. A graduate of McMains High School in New Orleans, she obtained an undergraduate degree in education from Louisiana State University in 1939. Her first teaching assignment was in the rural north Louisiana community of Lone Pine where she taught three elementary school grades in one room. For over 20 years, she taught the fourth grade in Crowville, Louisiana. She obtained a master's degree from Teacher's College at Columbia University in the mid-1950's. In 1963, she joined the faculty in the College of Education at LSU where she taught student teachers and the 4th grade at its Laboratory School. She was instrumental in establishing Louisiana's Head Start program. A longtime member of University Methodist Church, she was an avid volunteer during her retirement and spent many hours working with The Friends of the LSU Libraries Book Barn.

She is survived by three nieces, Patricia Hair Woods of Houston, Texas, Suzanne Hair Schuwerk of Austin, Texas and Barbara Hair Kurek of Brownstown, Michigan; two nephews, John Hair of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Robert Hair of Waterford, Michigan; numerous great nieces and nephews whose birthdays she always remembered, including Charles Hair, Bryan Hair, Adelaide Hair and Sally Hair of Baton Rouge, as well as several thousand former 4th grade students who had the good fortune to learn in her classroom.
Funeral services will be held on Monday, August 1 at 11:00 o'clock a.m. at the Crowville Methodist Church in Crowville, LA with Rev. Frances Guy officiating, with burial at the Crowville Masonic Cemetery, under the direction of Mulhearn Funeral Home of Winnsboro, LA.
In lieu of flowers the family asks that donations be made to Hospice Austin, 4107 Spicewood Springs Road, Suite 100, Austin, Texas 78729 or to The LSU Foundation for the Benefit of the LSU Libraries, 3838 West Lakeshore Drive, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70808.