Leechburg woman, 84, well known for volunteering, receives honorary high school diploma

The top of her cap and just a sliver of her face were all you could see of 5-foot-2 Violet Stivason at the lectern as he spoke of her life when accepting her honorary high school diploma at Leechburg Area High School auditorium Thursday night.

Just an hour earlier, the 84-year-old great-grandmother was in her high-rise apartment in Leechburg with two great-grandchildren and a granddaughter convincing them that she didn’t need a ride, that she would walk “only a couple of blocks” to the high school auditorium.

She didn’t tell them about the “slight” hill and some steps.

They relented and walked with her. Stivason might have walked farther than many of the other female graduates did who were in high heels. She, of course, wore sensible shoes.

After attending many graduations for her family, it was now Stivason’s turn. The younger generations wanted to do things like steam her white graduation frock, find pins for her cap, and other silly demands.

Stivason just smiled.

“It’s role reversal,” said Michele Hardy, 43, a granddaughter who came up from Woodbridge, Va., for the graduation ceremony along with great-granddaughter Abby Stivason, 27, who only a decade earlier, graduated from Leechburg Area High School and got ready for the ceremony in the same apartment.

“How do you want it on there,” Hardy asked Stivason as she placed the graduation cap carefully on Stivason’s hair, freshly coiffed at the beauty shop.

“The right way,” she answered.

“It’s an awesome gift,” said Stivason’s great-granddaughter Danielle Bowling, 24, of Harrison of the honorary degree.

The irony of the event was, had it not been for Stivason’s decision to drop out of school in 11th grade, she might have not been surrounded by these particular family members.

She grew up in Gilpin with her family and while attending Leechburg High School had an unplanned pregnancy at the age of 16. That was in the early 1950s when young women often left home and gave their babies up for adoption.

But Stivason stayed with her family and had her baby, Barry, and then worked at a garment factory in Washington Township. Her mother watched Barry when she worked. Several years later, she met her husband, Frederick, and they married. He formally adopted Barry, and the family lived in Gilpin.

Stivason went on to clean houses, which fit her schedule perfectly raising her son . She didn’t need a diploma for that.

It wasn’t that Stivason was ever in need of a degree. But perhaps some acknowledgment was in order, particularly for her dedication to volunteerism in the community. Stivason has been a fixture in the town with volunteerism including with the food bank and other organizations.

She breezed through the graduation ceremony Thursday, receiving her honorary degree from Superintendent Tiffany Nix, who said she was trying not to cry while introducing Stivason.

Earlier Nix said of her and the school board’s decision to award the honorary degree: “Mrs. Stivason gives so much to our community in such a positive way. She is a wonderful role model for our students.”

When Stivason reached the dais, she said: “I don’t know how many of you have seen me selling tickets downtown or working at the Weenie Wagon,” Stivason told the class. “I got my fingers in everything. It gives me a big pleasure to say I volunteer every day of the year, and I will keep doing that for as long as I live — and I hope that is for a long time.”