FOR DISTINGUISHED ALUMNA and TWU Foundation Board member Barbara D. Nunneley ’75, there was no question of where she’d attend college. The Nunneley family’s road to Texas Woman’s began in the 1940s, when her grandfather sold his West Texas ranch and moved his family of seven to Denton.
“Texas Woman’s is part of my family’s roots. My mother Mildred Nunneley ’47, ’48 earned her bachelor’s and master’s degree from the then-Texas State College Texas Woman’s Roots A Family Legacy for Women. My aunt Rita Beth Whatley attended the university in the late 1940s but graduated from The University of Texas at Austin’s engineering program in 1945. My aunt Ann Whatley ’45 and my sisters Karen Nunneley Young ’73 and Beth Nunneley Mazziotta ’80 are all TWU alumnae.”
My sister Karen ’73 “blazed the trail for me,” says Barbara. “She introduced me to professors and invited me to club meetings. The leadership opportunities at TWU were unparalleled. You grew into your own person at TWU knowing you were just as capable as anyone else in the classroom and developed the confidence to make decisions and the discipline to excel.”
That discipline to excel led Nunneley to attend law school. Practicing for more than four decades, this award-winning attorney sums up her career succinctly, “The beauty and draw of being a lawyer is that it teaches you to think critically and to solve problems. Once you learn how to analyze a problem, you can find a solution to any situation.”
Outside the courtroom, Nunneley has carried on another family tradition — ranching. She lives on 10 acres in the small town of Bartonville with her horses.
A family legacy and tradition may have brought Nunneley to the university, but it was at Texas Woman’s where she found her own person and the confidence to light up the sky.