By Nancy Bondurant Jones

The June date was wrong, but the silhouettes were right -- eight graduates strode across the bottom of the pictorial feature called "Old Dominion Oddities" in the Richmond News-Leader. The news not only ran in the state's major newspapers; it even made The Washington Post.

Harrisonburg's Daily News-Record may have reached a smaller readership, but it gave the story more space. On May 17, 1945, under a photo and the headline "8th Comer Sister of Shenandoah to Receive Degree at Madison," the paper reported, "Miss Nellie Elizabeth Comer, daughter of Mrs. Frank P. Comer and the late Mr. Comer … will receive the degree bachelor of science in education … at the age of 18." Nellie was noteworthy not only as the eighth sister in her family to attend Madison but also as the college's youngest graduate at that time.

Through the 1920s, '30s and '40s, the Comer sisters were the largest immediate family to attend JMU. Although JMU records are incomplete, it is possible that they still hold or share that record. The parade began when Beulah Mae Comer, now married to Mayor Ray Huffman of Stanley, Va., took classes in 1921. She then taught school in Page County, Va., before finishing her Bachelor of Science degree in 1939 and returning to Madison 20 years later for her master's. She says, "Madison was the root, the base -- that is where we grew from." Indeed, the sisters would grow and blossom.

Following Beulah in 1922 and 1923 was Alma Beatrice Comer Shuler, who most recently lived in Harrisonburg. (Shuler died July 22, a few months after this interview). The immediate memories of the 97-year-old may have dimmed, but her JMU remembrances always brought joy. For a girl raised on a farm north of Shenandoah, Harrisonburg offered extracurricular city delights -- shopping, movies and sweet treats at the drugstore or tea room. Classes, however, thrilled her most. Over the years, it was Alma's fond recollections that led her two daughters, a granddaughter and a grandson to follow her path to Madison, as did other offspring of the original band of eight sisters.

Mary Ann Comer came next. Her independent spirit broke through when she chose nursing instead of teaching. She entered the program at Rockingham Memorial Hospital to graduate in 1932 and serve as one of the early operating-room nurses. Patients pleaded with her to follow them home on private duty, and she often complied. After marriage, first to Sam Marks and then to Bill Kammel, she topped her career at St. Luke's Hospital in La Crosse, Wis., where she still resides.

Brownie Frances Comer, sister No. 4, earned her two-year certificate in 1935, a B.S. in 1939 and added a Master of Science from the University of Virginia in 1966. Also a resident of Stanley, she married Herman Cave and shepherded several generations of youngsters through school there, adding to her sisters' patterns of public service.

Grace Marie Comer ('39) may have been the first Comer to chaff under Madison's strict rules. She recalled ignoring the "lights out" edict to gather with friends in one another's rooms to talk late into the night. She also joined the student revolt against the dress code. Strictly following the rule for hats and gloves, they all donned "old hats and clothes," she laughs. These rules were first relaxed and ultimately removed. In later years, she married Landon Shackelford and took up her vocation at NASA and her avocation as a rosarian who cross-pollinates varieties of roses in an attempt to produce an exceptional variety worthy of commercial marketing. Grace is ready if she's ever successful. She'll name the new rose "Shenandoah" for the river that ran by her childhood home, where she once detested the garden work that she now loves. She can talk at length about her avocation, a sharp contrast to the secrecy that surrounded her duties at NASA.

Sister No. 6, Margaret Virginia Comer, earned a two-year certificate in 1938 -- the first of four degrees. She enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh for her B.S., master's in education and a doctorate. But her teaching career began in a one-room schoolhouse at Tanner's Ridge in Stanley. Between years at Shenandoah, Luray and Leesburg, she attended summer sessions at Madison. She then married Lt. Leon Kupiec, who was stationed with the Civilian Conservation Corps at Big Meadows in the Shenandoah National Park. Following World War II, the couple moved to Pittsburgh, where Margaret continued teaching and learning. Her doctoral dissertation, "The Effect of Drugs on Students' Learning," predicted the use and possible dangers of Ritalin for children with attention-deficit disorders. Remaining in Pittsburgh after Leon's death, Margaret retired in 1996 at age 76, capping an illustrious 46-year career.

The seventh sister, Catherine Charlene Comer, graduated in 1940. Her all-too-short teaching career that began in Silver Spring, Md., ended in a tragic automobile accident in Santa Ana, Calif., where her husband, Edward Nichols, was stationed with the U.S. Marine Corps.

Nellie Elizabeth Comer, who married Saul Robinson of Luray, was the eighth and final Comer sister to attend Madison. The 1945 graduate began teaching at Rosemary Hills Junior High in Silver Spring, Md., but the major portion of her professional days found her teaching classes in English, history or Latin in Page County. She still praises professors Henry Converse in math and "Johnny Mac" in history. She says, "His real name was John McIlwraith and it was Mr. McIlwraith to his face, but 'Johnny Mac' the rest of the time. And he was the best history teacher I've ever known."

What kind of parents engender such outstanding devotion to education and service? With only four months of formal schooling, their mother, Fannie, taught herself to read. She was determined that her own children would have the opportunity to fulfill whatever potential for learning they displayed. Mary called her "the torch for education." From their earliest school days, Fannie saw to it that they sat in a classroom every day and around the dining room table every night to do their lessons, and she expected results. The governor of Virginia later commended her for the role she played in promoting her daughters' education.

Their father, Frank, offered support
-- financial and moral -- in equal measure. A lifelong farmer who was also engaged in lumber and threshing, he set a daily example of hard work and ethical conduct. The community's final tribute surely made an indelible impression on his children. According to the Shenandoah Journal, his funeral in 1932 was "the largest ever held in or near Shenandoah," in which "at least 2,290 people attended … The funeral procession, with 350 cars, was more than two miles long, besides many people that walked … He was known far and near, and he tried to play the game of life fair with his fellow man."

Frank and Fannie Comer's legacy continues in the generations of lives touched by their eight Madison daughters.