From College Grad, Wife, Mother, Coach, Teacher, Administrator, Marketing Guru, to Real Estate Prodigy

Although Tucker Dudley’s careers have been a time-consuming, delightful aspect of her life, she considers her greatest accomplishment her 34-year marriage to Maurice “Mo” Dudley. He and their daughter Brett have been her greatest supporters as she has kept herself busy and productive through the decades. For her, they are “my most attentive supporters in all my endeavors.”

She and Mo met here in Longview by chance when a mutual friend introduced them. She describes it as love at first sight despite some differences. He is eight years younger, and a transplanted Maine Yankee now married to a Native Texan of long lineage. Their courtship lasted just four months before they stepped up to the altar, and there were those who were, in fact, surprised this pairing of opposites lasted.

Like her parents, Brett loves people, believes in the philosophy of “never quit,” and is very adept and successful in her own chosen fields. By matriculating at Louisiana State University, she converted her parents into ardent LSU Tiger fans. While at Baton Rouge, she met her own soul mate and has been his wife for 13 years. Being in a mutually supportive family is something she learned from her mother.

“I was raised in a loving environment in Elysian Fields,” Tucker says. “Everybody knew everybody else and kept an eye on all of us. The phrase ‘It takes a community to raise a child’ had to have originated in Elysian Fields.”

Tucker’s parents were deeply in love and infected their three daughters with this powerful bond. The girls were spaced widely. The oldest, Scherry is eight years older, and younger sister Trina is almost nine years her junior. In essence, these sisters were all only children with the same parents. Her mother and sisters were their high school graduating class’s valedictorians. Tucker, however, mixed her studies with tireless extracurricular activities, and did very well in both areas.

“I was a cheerleader, played trumpet in the band, played varsity basketball and tennis,” she says. “I loved sports. My mother was an incredible athlete and pushed us all to play and play well.”

These sisters learned the family lesson that being a quitter, be it in education, sports or careers, is utterly unacceptable. To this day, she never contemplates doing anything halfway of in a desultory fashion. She throws herself 100% into whatever she does and completes the tasks to the absolute best of her ability. This includes her spiritual life.

“I don’t remember feeling that I was being forced to attend church. It was an important part of my life that I loved, and still do today,” she says. “I feel that I grew up in the very best place, surrounded by the most wonderful people in the world.”

She and her sisters still strive to live up to their parents’ lofty examples on how to be a blessing to everyone in their lives. She describes her mother as “beautiful, strong and very smart.” She stayed at home, dedicating herself to raising her daughters while her husband worked in the oil fields. They were not a family with a lot of money, but they were rich in other ways. “In our sweet little town, we had no idea that we were very nearly poor,” she says.

Education was a key route to success, and her parents made sure they were able to send her to college. After graduating from Elysian Fields High School, she enrolled first at Panola Junior College, Southwest Texas State (now called simply Texas State) and as a junior at Stephen F. Austin State University and pulled down a bachelor’s degree in her double majors of history and physical education. She also took a master’s degree in secondary education and did not stop there. Her next accomplishment was earning a Master’s in school administration and a certification to be a school superintendent.

Stephen F. Austin is known for training excellent educators. It was also only a ninety-minute drive from her hometown. She was a working student, putting in so many hours in jobs that she had no student debt when she graduated. The rewards of hard work are something she absorbed from her industrious parents, and as soon as she graduated, she was out on her own.

“In those days nobody moved home after college,” she says. “We just understood that we had been given a great opportunity, and when we graduated, we got a job and supported ourselves.”