CANDY LYNN HUDSON MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP

Fall Scholarship Candy Lynn Hudson was born in Ada, Oklahoma in 1954, and she was a native of nearby Coalgate. As a teenager, she was part of the fourth generation to work in the family business, Hudson’s Big Country Store, which was a stalwart fixture of the Coalgate community for 91 years. Candy attended East Central University from 1973 -1977, graduating with both her Bachelor and Masters in Education. She began her teaching career in Maysville, Oklahoma, and after one year moved to Denison High School in Texas. In 1984, Candy began selling real estate. She was named Rookie Agent of the Year for the Plano (TX) office of the Henry S. Miller agency that year. After several years in the real estate industry, Candy returned to teaching in 1991 in Plano. She was a Reading Specialist at both Clark High School and Hendrick Middle School until she retired from the Texas system in 2013 to care for her aging mother back in Oklahoma. Candy later returned to teaching once again at Durant (OK) Middle School where she taught from 2018 – 2023. During her career, Candy taught both Special Education and Reading for students who tested below grade level for comprehension. She had a heart for students who had physical, mental, and academic challenges, and her goal was to help all her students succeed to the best of their abilities. For nearly 35 years, she invested her time and talents into the lives of her young pupils. In her memory, the Candy Lynn Hudson Education Scholarship has been established to help develop the next generation of educators and assist with their academic endeavors. This scholarship will be awarded to an incoming freshman each fall semester with preference to a student that graduates from a Coal County high school in Oklahoma (Coalgate or Tupelo) with second preference given to incoming freshmen that graduate from a high school within a southeastern Oklahoma county (Atoka, Bryan, Choctaw, Haskell, LeFlore, McCurtain, Pittsburg, or Pushmataha). Any recipient must maintain a cumulative 2.5 GPA or above as an ECU student to continue to receive the award (for up to 8 semesters total and can include summer as long as the student is enrolled in 6 or more hours) and must have a declared major within the Department of Education.