DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, there are stories that start halfway around the world and still manage to land right here in Texas — and the story of Lilia and Josephine Casis is exactly that kind. The two sisters were born in the late 1800s, Lilia in 1869, Josephine in 1873, and they were reared in Jamaica.
Their European parents saw to it that these girls got a serious education — the classics, languages, music. The kind of upbringing that plants deep roots wherever you happen to set 'em down. And in 1890, they set 'em down in Texas.
Now, Josephine took the more direct path. She earned a teaching degree and walked straight into Austin's Palm School, where she taught for thirty-three years. Thirty-three years.
You want to talk about steady? That's a career. That's a life.
Generations of Austin children passed through her classroom, shaped by a woman who'd come up on classical education in Jamaica and brought every bit of it with her. Lilia, though — Lilia had a different kind of hunger. She pursued graduate studies in Europe and at the University of Texas, and in 1916, she became the first woman full professor at that university.
The first. You let that sit a moment. The year is 1916, and Lilia Casis is breaking ground at the University of Texas in a way nobody had before her.
Both sisters, 1947, the same year — they were gone. But here's the thing about women who spend their lives building something: they get to decide what happens to it. The Casis sisters left their estates to the University of Texas.
And then, in 1951, the Austin school district answered in kind — naming Casis Elementary School in their honor. A school named for two women who believed, from the very beginning, that education was worth crossing an ocean for. Sounds about right to me.
What the marker says
Josephine (1873-1947) and Lilia (1869-1947) Casis were reared in Jamaica, where their European parents educated them in the classics, languages, and music, before they moved to Texas in 1890. Josephine earned a teaching degree and taught at Austin's Palm School for 33 years. Lilia pursued graduate studies in Europe and at the University of Texas, where in 1916 she became the first woman full professor. The Casis sisters left their estates to the University of Texas; in 1951 the Austin school district named Casis Elementary School in their honor. (1994)