Ada was an advocate. She received her B.A. from Tillotson College, where she would later become Head of the Economics Department after receiving her M.S. at Iowa State College. She never received a formal education up until she started auditing at Austin Samuel Houston College She was then able to take exams to receive the course equivalents. She would become a local legend in Austin advocating the health of many and well-known by her later married name “Ada D. Simond.”
In later life, Simond was inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame in 1986. After a career as a teacher, she worked as a public health representative until retirement and then proceeded to volunteer for food banks and other local organizations, write children’s books, and lead in the preservation of African-American history in Austin, Texas.
Iowa State College Thesis Title: Certain housing conditions and activities of Negro girls enrolled in federally aided schools in Texas as one index of their educational needs, 1936
Iowa State University Catalog Record:https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/17754
Sources
Photo Credit Texas State Historical Association
Biography available at HBCU Connections at Iowa State University : Ada M. DeBlanc-Yerwood ( http://hbcuconnections.iastatedigital.org/Ada_M._DeBlanc-Yerwood )
