79-year-old great-grandmother graduates from UNT Dallas

DALLAS - If Anna Pedford had listened to the naysayers, she wouldn't be a college graduate.

Instead, her path took her to the University of North Texas at Dallas where she just graduated with a degree in psychology.

"The Lord is directing my path," Pedford said. "I would have never thought from 1963 when I entered Texas Southern University and begged my parents to come home."

Pedford came home and got a job at AT&T, known then as Southwestern Bell, and eventually a job at Dallas ISD where she's still a substitute teacher. Still, when she left Texas Southern, she had no plans to get a college degree.

"I thought, ‘I’m done. No way.'" Pedford said. "It was just fate that my door stopped right in front of the door of El Centro."

Pedford would earn an associates degree from Mountain View College, becoming a mother and a grandmother along the way.

University President Dr. Warren Von Eschenbach called Pedford an inspiration.

"It was really an inspiration when she came across the stage," Von Eschenbach said. "I had the pleasure of taking a photo with her and all the graduates, and she got the standing ovation she deserved."

Pedford said she hopes she can be an inspiration to others.

"I have this passion for learning and I always say that if I have dementia or Alzheimer's it'll have to catch me at the grocery store, shopping center or university," she said. "I will not give them the satisfaction of me being at home and you zeroing in on me and messing my mind up. That's not what God wants me to do."

And it might very well be the university where you find Pedford. She had a message for Von Eschenbach.

"I'll see you in grad school," she said.

"Looking forward to it," Von Eschenbach said.