BIOGRAPHY:  Lucile Dean Bryan, Coke County, TX

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Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net
15 May 2002
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The Observer/Enterprise, 22 March 2002, Robert Lee, TX

Lucile Dean Bryan:  The	Beauty of Her Dreams

by Jane Austin Bruckner, former student, who graduated from Robert Lee 
High in 1959 and now lives in Fort Worth.

Eleanor Roosevelt said the future belongs to those who believe in the 
beauty of their dreams. Lucile probably had many dreams, but I observed
three of her dreams that came true.   First, she dreamed the children 
of she and Jeff Dean would be educated, productive citizens.  And, 
they are: Jerry has doctorate in musicology, has taught at the 
University of Texas, Austin and now, has career in composition and 
performance.  Della Katherine (Kitten) has degrees in music education 
and teaches in Hondo, where she also does composition and performance. 
Tony's degrees are in agriculture and he works for the Soil 
Conservation Service. They married and have children, the 
grandchildren she adored.  She was so proud of the children and 
grandchildren.

Another of Lucile's dreams was to become a music educator.  As one of 
her former students, I experienced her giftedness during my school 
years at Robert Lee, where her twenty one year career began in 1950.  
She cared deeply about her students and loved teaching music. From her 
I learned to sing and to dream..and so much more.  That beautiful face 
was framed by short, white hair atop her tall frame, always well 
dressed.  She admonished us to stand straight and open our mouths,  
breathe deeply, to sing with joy from the heart.  Can anyone forget the
spectacular musical she wrote and produced each Spring, during the
fifties, which included hundreds of children appearing on stage?  We
spent many class hours rehearsing in classrooms and on stage.  She 
clearly explained the rules and her expectations. She believed in us.
Children did not misbehave in her classes. If anyone needed correcting,
her stern look, "the look" quickly corrected a student's errant ways. 
She expected our attention in class, as she expected us to know the 
words of the songs and have appropriate costumes for the musicals.  If 
a child didn't have a costume, she'd find a way to get one.  As the 
children sang, she played the piano beautifully.  While conducting  
from the keyboard.  Years later I still remember the words and music 
to some of those songs like America The Beautiful, Cieleto Lindo, 
Cheribiribin, Joy to the World, and Angels We Have Heard on High. She 
worked hard and spent many hours to give her students exciting musical 
experiences.  After her husband died, in 1964, she returned to Sul Ross 
and earned a master's degree.

Later she married Wilson Bryan and they combined their creativity and 
dreamed Robert Lee would have an amphitheater and a pageant They worked
to make tha dream come true.  Wilson assembled materials and people  
and supervised construction of the outdoor theater. Lucile, knowing 
the value of Coke County heritage, got busy writing a pageant 
featuring early settlers into the Coke County Pageant to be produced
every summer in the amphitheater.  In 1983 on one of her trips 
researching and collecting ideas for the theater, she and Wilson came 
to visit me in New Jersey.  She was so involved energetic, and happy 
about the prospects of having a outdoor theater in Robert Lee, 
similar to the one in Palo Duro Canyon and others she had attended. 
That evening we visited, she asked me to play for her; I gave my best 
performance of a Rachmaninoff Prelude. Then I told her how much l 
loved those school musicals and appreciated her as a teacher.  She 
said, the greatest compliment a teacher can receive is that a student 
loves the subject she taught.

How  fitting that the Mountain Creek Amphitheater will now be named 
the Wilson and Lucile Bryan Amphitheater...lmagine the pleasure the 
early settlers would have on learning what the Bryans did to preserve 
our heritage as we dream about the present and future quality of life 
in our town.

Have you thought about your dreams for our community. Write or e-mail 
me your dreams, which will be incorporated into a future article. You 
can reach me at P.0. Box 330486, Fort Worth, Texas 76163 or e-mail 
jane@janebruckner.com.

Permission granted by Observer/Enterprise for publication in the
Coke County TXGenWeb Archives