When Celina Independent School District (CISD) had the task to name its new elementary school, numerous names were nominated. In fact, according to CISD, there were over sixty names submitted to the naming committee. While all were deserving, the committee knew there was only one choice: Tommie Dobie Bothwell.
The new elementary school, located in the Cambridge Crossing neighborhood and the Dobie Family farmland, was home to Tommie Jean Dobie Bothwell literally since her birth. When Tommie was an infant, her father passed away leaving Tommie’s mother to raise her and her two sisters alone, plus manage the farm. Tommie attended school in Celina sometimes arriving to school on a buggy.
Tommie attended college at North Texas State Teacher’s College (now University of North Texas) and after graduation started teaching at Good Hope School in Prosper. She lived with other teachers in a home near the Bothwell family farm, where she met her future husband, Sam Bothwell. They married shortly thereafter and had one daughter, Sammie.
Unfortunately, after seven years of marriage, her husband passed away. As a single widowed mother, Tommie moved back to the Dobie Farm and started teaching in Aubrey. She also went back to school to earn a master’s degree in education.
After only six weeks in Aubrey, Celina has an immediate opening for a first-grade teacher providing an opportunity for Tommie to return home. She became a first and second grade teacher in Celina where she would loyally remain for over thirty-five years.
Tommie Bothwell taught most of her years in the building that is now home to Celina ISD Administration. It is well known that Mrs. Bothwell influenced an endless number of students, spanning over multiple generations, including her own daughter.
Sammie Bothwell Carey had her mom as her first and second-grade teacher. She recalls, “I had to work hard to get good grades! She bent over backward to not be partial to me, so much so that I never got to be a leader like holding the flag or directing the Pledge of Allegiance.”
Tommie Bothwell’s impact is well known. Jane Huddleston, a prominent member of Celina’s community, was also a student of Mrs. Bothwell as well as a longtime friend of Sammie Carey. Mrs. Huddleston remembers how Mrs. Bothwell was ahead of her time as an educator. “When I think about Mrs. Bothwell, she knew how to recognize learning differences before there was testing and other methods to identify these problems,” said Jane. “If there was a student with a hearing problem, for example, she had a way to spot it and the instinct to know how to accommodate those students. She just knew how to help those students with needs,” she continued. Education did not catch up to this technique and method for decades to come. Jane also recalls fondly, “Mrs. Bothwell always had a smile, but you also knew when she was serious.”
For years, Mrs. Bothwell would boast about the greatness of her students. Sammie said, “Mom was crazy about her pupils.” Like clockwork each new school year, Sammie states that Mrs. Bothwell “would tell my grandmother, ‘Momma I’ve got the cutest little bunch this year’.” The family would continually remind Mrs. Bothwell how she would say that every year.
Tommie Bothwell taught in Celina ISD until 1978. As mentioned, she reached many generations of Celina families including the Huddleston family. Besides teaching Jane Huddleston, Mrs. Bothwell taught Jane’s son, Charles Ray Huddleston plus his mother, Jane Merritt. Charles and Sherry Huddleston were many of the Celina residents who advocated for the new elementary school to be named after Tommie Bothwell. The couple was so passionate about the school’s name that they contacted Celina ISD in 2023 before a naming committee was even created!
Typically, when naming a new building for the school district, Celina ISD created a Naming Committee who would research and ultimately present several names for consideration to the school board members. For this elementary school, only one name was submitted, that being Tommie Bothwell.
The criterion for naming a school includes a citizen who graduated from Celina, possibly born in Celina, and/or taught in Celina. Tommie Bothwell, according to Jane Huddleston, was the only person that met every benchmark. Plus, she was born and raised on the land where the new school was to be built. Therefore, without question, Celina ISD bestowed the honor of naming the new school after Tommie Dobie Bothwell.
Kristen Aune, Bothwell Elementary Principal, understands the significance of this name to Celina. She comments, “Anyone you talk to in Celina that had her as a teacher loved her. Her method of teaching made special connections to her students like intentional efforts for social-emotional learning, something education is just now implementing in schools.”
Aune states it is a conscious effort to make sure the students know the legacy of Tommie Bothwell. “We want the kids to know her story and how she loved kids and made kids want to come to school,” Aune said. “Even though she is no longer with us, it is our mission to have the sense of community that Mrs. Bothwell delivered to Celina students.”
To fulfill that mission continuing the community theme, Bothwell teachers and administration conducted “porch visits” for every single student attending the new school. “We did it from the very beginning and didn’t skip one single house or kid,” asserts Principal Aune. “We feel like that she would have loved that and would have wanted to be a part of that in the community because she was so involved in the community,” Aune continued.
Bothwell Elementary has special features providing the students with a sense of community including collaboration places and a “house system” allowing for students to know teachers, and other kids in multiple grades and giving all involved a communal feeling, another way to honor Tommie Bothwell.
To educate pupils on Tommie Bothwell, the school has many personal items donated by the Bothwell family. Those include family pictures, school pictures of Mrs. Bothwell and her classes, plus a yearbook belonging to Tommie. Paintings of the Dobie Farm as well as paintings created by Mrs. Bothwell are also displayed. Perhaps the most special addition is a quilt of drawings with each square created by her last class of students in 1978. This blanket was ultimately quilted by Sammie Bothwell Carey, honoring her mother’s memory, now hanging proudly at her mother’s namesake school.
Tommie Bothwell passed away at the age of 99 in 2011. Besides serving Celina ISD for thirty-five years, she was also an active member of Celina. She was an elder at the Presbyterian Church, and a member of Fidelis Inter Se of Celina. Her daughter, Sammie, lives in Prosper. Tommie Bothwell also had three grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren.
The legacy of Tommie Bothwell will live on not only through her family but also the thirty-five years of her student family. Moreover, a new generation of students will experience her heritage by attending Celina’s newest school, Tommie Dobie Bothwell Elementary. Kudos to Celina for creating a lasting and deserving honor for a woman who gave so much to so many.