By Emily Jenkins, Volunteer
Welba Dorsey and her husband Edwin live right on UMHB’s campus in the charming, red brick house across the street from the Crusader’s football stadium. But far beyond simple proximity, Welba Dorsey shared that her family’s connections to the university are quite extensive.
Welba Dorsey’s family association with Mary Hardin-Baylor goes all the way back to her paternal grandmother’s family who moved from Independence, Texas, to Belton with Baylor Female College in the late 1800s.
Her mother and aunt both attended Mary Hardin-Baylor College. At the time, young ladies who were not wealthy, like Welba’s mother and aunt, did not receive the opportunity to attend college. However, Welba explained that Judge R.E.B. Baylor wanted to give the less wealthy girls the opportunity to further their education and so arranged a work study program.
Welba explained that Mary-Hardin Baylor is one of the first institutions with a work study program. Her maternal grandfather helped pay for his girls’ tuition by bringing a truckload of turnips or cantaloupes to Hardy Hall, the dining hall at the time. Because Welba’s mother and aunt could only attend Mary-Hardin Baylor during the summer, they graduated after around 10 years. After graduating, women at the time could either become a teacher or a nurse, she explained.
Welba’s mother became a teacher and taught at Phoenix school after college. The school board president was none other than Jim Smith, Welba’s grandfather. Welba’s mother worked the six-month school years, received boarding at the Smith’s house, and was paid $80 per month.
After living with the Smith’s for seven years, Welba’s mother married Jim Smith’s son. However, during World War II, James Washington Smith gave up his finances, home, land, and holdings in Phoenix to Camp Hood for the war effort. Since Jim Smith gave up his land, the Smith family gathered enough money to buy country land in 1942. This land was located from where UMHB’s College View apartments are today all the way to modern Loop 121. While this was happening, Welba’s father was in the Navy fighting in WWII and sending funds for the Smith family’s land purchase.
While her father was deployed to the Aleutian Islands, Welba was born in June 1948. She lived her earliest years at her Grandfather Smith’s house with her mother, aunts and their families. After the war, Welba’s father bought a barrack from Fort Hood, brought it back to the Smith’s land, and made it into Welba’s childhood home.
In the 1950s, Welba’s parents started working their jobs rather than working the land because of the seven years of drought. Welba’s father worked at Gray Air Base, later a part of Fort Hood. Her mother also went back to working as a school teacher, first at Armstrong and later at Meadows, one of the first integrated schools in Texas.
In 1957, Welba’s family moved to Copperas Cove since her father worked at Gray Air Base. Her mother later changed her school to Copperas Cove for convenience. In Copperas Cove, 14-year-old Welba met Edwin Dorsey. Welba Dorsey related, “I truly believe God took me to Copperas Cove to find my husband…I graduated from Copperas Cove… in three years instead of four because I wanted to get married. I met him when I was 14, I knew he was ‘it’ when I was 15, and I married him upon graduating from high school when I was 17. We have been married 64 years.”
Although Welba attended a semester at UMHB, Welba and Edwin Dorsey graduated from Tarleton State University. Eventually, Welba and Edwin Dorsey moved back to Belton. Welba said, “In 1995, we built this house. We tore down the house that was here, and we built this house. And in 2003, we retired in Fort Worth, and we came and we lived here permanently after that.”
Welba Dorsey said there are pros and cons to living so close to UMHB’s campus. While game days can be extremely loud living across the street from the football stadium, not to mention the traffic, she said UMHB has been a good neighbor. She is thankful for the safety the campus police provide and enjoys hosting college students from her church.
