Mildred Vorpahl Baass

Mildred Vorpahl Baass, Poet Laureate of Texas, 1993-94 & 1994-95, passed away November 4, 2012, with daughters Carol Anne Baass Sowa of San Antonio and Nancy Jean Baass of Victoria, holding her hands. She was born April 15, 1917, in San Antonio, where she attended St. Henry's School and St Mary's Parochial School, graduating from the latter as Valedictorian in 1933. She was involved in numerous school activities and clubs there and at Our Lady of the Lake College, now OLLU, where she graduated as Valedictorian in 1937 with a B.A. in English, was voted "Most Popular Girl on Campus" and was later named one of their outstanding alumni on OLLU’s 100th anniversary. After a summer job translating Latin at OLLU, she worked as a clerk/typist at Fort Sam Houston, resigning to marry, on September 5, 1942, Lt. A. M. Hutchison Jr., Army Air Corps Navigator, whom she met years before through her church's youth group. In February of 1943, his plane was shot down over the English Channel in WW II battle action and he was declared KIA a year later. She then joined the American National Red Cross, requesting overseas duty, and was assigned in 1944 as Secretary/Staff Aide attached to the U.S. Army's 81st Station Hospital in Italy, behind the front lines until the end of WW II in Europe in 1945. She received 3 battle stripes and a Meritorious Citation for her service. She was headed to serve in the Pacific when WW II ended and returned home to serve as Red Cross office manager of the hospital at Lackland Field. She resigned 6 months later to marry on May 9, 1946, Judge Alfred C. Baass, Attorney and Justice of the Peace, Prct. 1, of Victoria, just returned from Infantry service in the Aleutians, whom she had known during their college days when he was a law student at St Mary's University, their friendship later turning into love during correspondence. She moved to his hometown where they raised their two daughters. A wonderful homemaker, she also worked at home as typist for his law practice. She was involved in their daughters' lives and served as PTA president, vice president and secretary at Nazareth Academy and PTA vice president and historian at Victoria High School, where she also was a substitute teacher. Supportive of her husband's activities until his death at home in November of 1985, her involvement in community activities included serving as secretary-treasurer of the Victoria Lawyers Wives Club, president of the Past Presidents Club and secretary and president of Currer Bell Study Club, a member of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs. She won the title of TFWC Poet Laureate, Alamo District, in 1981, 1983 and 1984, her poems appearing in The Texas Clubwoman. Over the years, she lent her hand to fundraisers, such as those of the Victoria Regional Museum Association and Victoria Preservation, Inc. A devout Catholic, she was a member of the Legion of Mary and Our Lady of Victory Cathedral.

Mildred began writing poetry at the age of 10 and never stopped being a poet. She was first published in OLLU's literary quarterly, The Palms. In 1977 she joined the Poetry Society of Texas and the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, Inc. and began winning in their annual contests, resulting in publication through the years in their anthologies, PST's A Book of the Year and NFSPS' Prize Poems, later called Encore. She won the top PST contest in 1998 and retired from that competition, but still entered the NFSPS contests, her last winning poem being published in 2009. She won 4 honorable mentions in 2012 at the NFSPS Convention in Indiana, where she was a PST delegate. A Book of the Year 1996 was dedicated to her and she was voted the Hilton Ross Greer Outstanding Service Award for 1995. She received NFSPS Special Awards for being a PST "Guiding Light" in 2008 and for A Book of the Year 1997 and 1998, co-edited with daughter Nancy with whom she twice co-hosted the PST Summer Conference in Victoria and co-chaired the PST Annual Awards Banquet in Dallas for 12 years. She was appointed a PST Councilor in 1981 and a Councilor at Large in 1995. In 1994 she was given life membership in PST. She was NFSPS Contest Sponsors/Brochure chairman for 2 years and a speaker at the PST hosted 1996 NFSPS Convention in Dallas. She was a sponsor of PST and NFSPS contests and judged those and many other contests held by PST chapters, NFSPS societies and other organizations. She spoke at PST state and chapter meetings, summer conferences and NFSPS society meetings out of state. Through the years, she gave book reviews and innumerable poetry programs to organizations, church groups and schools, grades pre-k through college, in Victoria and around Texas. Artistically talented, she and Nancy at one time, as Baass Originals, made ceramic wind chimes.

The author of Mythology in Verse or The "Why" in Myths, a scholarly researched work, Mildred and four Victoria poets, the Cinquains, co-authored Listen to Texas and Poetry Keys to the Open Door. Her poetry, written on many subjects in a variety of forms, appears in numerous other anthologies and publications, including A Galaxy of Verse in which she was profiled as A Bright Star in Our Galaxy. She was asked to write poems for special occasions, such as the groundbreaking for the Women's Pavilion at Citizens Medical Center in Victoria and was recipient of numerous honors throughout her lifetime, including being named "Favorite Poet" by the Victoria Writers' Guild and granted honorary life membership in the Texas Jaycee-Ettes Victoria Chapter in recognition of her service to the community. Her greatest poetic honor came when she was appointed Poet Laureate of Texas for 1993-94 by unanimous vote of the joint Senate/House Committee charged by the governor with this selection in Austin after they reviewed her poetry, honors and contributions to the world of poetry. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Texas for 1994-95, again by unanimous vote, based on the outstanding job she had done promoting poetry across the state and nation during her first term. She lived up to her slogan, "Have poem, will travel!" The mayor of Victoria proclaimed National Poetry Day, October 15, 1994, as "Mildred Vorpahl Baass Day." In 2010 she was invited to read her poetry with other Texas Poets Laureate during the Annual Langdon Review Weekend in Granbury, conducted by Tarleton State University, and to read a poem under the "Poet Laureate Tree" where her name was engraved on a plaque. The poem, "Summer Morning on Padre Island," her last published, appears in the Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas, Volume 7, 2010-11.

In addition to her two husbands, she was preceded in death by her parents, Alfred H. Vorpahl Sr. and Ida M. Keller Vorpahl, her older sister, Evelyn V. Slimp and her younger brother, Alfred H. "Lucky" Vorpahl Jr. In addition to her two daughters, she is survived by granddaughters Gwendolyn and Regina Sowa and great-grandchildren Tahlia, Morgan and Max Sowa, all of San Antonio, and her pet cats.

Visitation will be Friday, November 16, 2012 from 6-7 PM with a Rosary being recited at 7 PM at the Rosewood Funeral Chapels. The Mass of Christian Burial will be 10 AM on Saturday, November 17, 2012 at Our Lady of Victory Cathedral. Interment will follow in Catholic Cemetery #2.

Pallbearers will be Donnie Vorpahl, Jack Mullins, Jerry Daggett, Judge Dan Gilliam, Judge Bob Whitaker and Billy Lo Pinto.

Memorial: American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, 2805 N. Navarro, Suite 500,Victoria, Texas 77901.

Words of comfort may be shared with the family at www.rosewoodfuneralchapel.com.

Summer Morning on Padre Island

Barefoot, I walk the cool hard-packed sand,

Following a parade of tiny spotted sandpipers,

Whose delicate trail of stitchery

Is instantly erased by the restless sea.

My footprints, too, are carried seaward,

But, in return, the tide casts out some pearly shells,

Wet and shiny from Neptune’s chest.

Overhead, the noisy seagulls wheel and plunge,

Delighting in the cool salt spray,

And I catch my breath at the beauty of their wings

Fanned out against the Texas sky.

The curling water nibbles at my toes,

As I stoop to examine a tiny golden starfish

Abandoned by the ebbing tide,

Which the sandpipers seem to chase

And then hastily scurry shoreward

As the playful tide returns.

I still have the starfish, Neptune’s discard,

But, to me, a treasure of golden memories

Of a summer morning on Padre Island.

Mildred Vorpahl Baass