When Carol Brown Cline Vaughn graduated from Friendswood High School in 1945, she was teaching private piano lessons. Today, in 2011,  she still is. Vaughn enjoys teaching 27 piano students weekly and has been her church’s organist and pianist most of her adult life.
           Vaughn is one of the six Distinguished Alumni for 2011. She will be honored at a reception for the six Feb. 11 at 7 pm at Friendswood High School.
           When she left FHS, she attended Friends, University in Wichita Kansas where she studied music and began seven years of study on the pipe organ. In 1972, she received her BA cum laude in music and in 1974, her MA in Curriculum and Instruction with a Music Education emphasis  from the University of Houston. It was here in 1990 that she was awarded her Ed.D. in C&I.
           “My major career for the first 29 years of married life: Being a supportive wife, raising 4 children, returning to college in 1969 to get my Bachelors degree. Teaching during those years was a sideline.  The next 24 years involved further education, supporting my second husband as a pastor’s wife and in founding Houston Graduate School of Theology, and working/teaching in the graduate school,” Vaughn said. “Being involved in the training of ministers, church musicians, counselors, and Christian Educators was a fulfilling spiritual and educational experience.”
           She and Conrad Cline had four children: Byron, an MD in Kansas; Conrad, a local dentist; Karen Cline Kirkpatrick, a teacher at Cline Elementary; and Bruce, a local optometrist. She has 22 grandchildren, including spouses, and 7 great grandchildren.
Favorite memories of FHS:
            1. Being in the FHS Band. I was allowed into the band in the 5th grade due to too
             few students in high school.  Favorite band teachers were Mr. Lively and Mr.
             Elbert.
            2. Favorite Math Teacher: Glenda Ellison Harper. She made algebra and
             geometry easy.
            3. I appreciated Kay Spain, Home Economics cooking and sewing teacher.
            4. I appreciated the efforts of Mr. Wendell Hadley, Superintendent of
              Friendswood Schools in maintaining daily morning assemblies where
              we sang, Scripture was read, and prayer was offered.
             5. Helena Osborne was Principal. She began teaching in Friendswood the same
               year I entered school; was my 2nd grade teacher and she retired the year I
               graduated from high school.
           
           Community Involvement includes participation in a family-oriented Horseback Riding Club and Friendswood 4-H work; support to husband, Conrad Cline during his many years of service on  the Friendswood School Board and sponsorship of a Vietnamese family into Friendswood following the fall of Saigon.
            “In my thinking the greatest award I have is my family of children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren—all of whom are active in church and in their communities,” Vaughn said. “The greatest achievement, for which I continue to strive and pray to the Lord Jesus daily, is to meet all of my family in Heaven. This was also Conrad’s request before he died.”