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Polly Willard
1941 - 2022
Polly Willard
1941 - 2022
Obituary
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BORN
1941
DIED
2022
Polly Willard Obituary
February 20, 1941 - April 22, 2022
Sacramento, California - Polly Earlene (Scruggs) Willard born on 02/20/1941 to Warren Madison and Mary Kate Scruggs in Del Rio, TN.
She graduated from Cocke County High School in Newport, TN in 1959. She then went on to graduate in 1962 from Carson Newman College in Jefferson City, TN with a B.S. degree majoring in Mathematics, minoring in chemistry. She returned to her high school Alamater as a math teacher, school year starting in 1962. While teaching there for the next 6 yrs. Polly continued her education receiving a Masters Degree in math from the University of Tenseness in 1968. The following school year she started teaching at Morristown High School, Morristown, TN. At the end of that school year she married the love of her life, Jon HR Willard, a U.S. Marine, leaving the day after the ceremony for Camp Pendleton, CA.
She taught at several schools in CA before retiring in Sacramento.
After almost 53 yrs. of marriage, to Jon, she left him to be with Jesus.
Her parents preceded her in death, but left behind her son Jon R. of Phenix, AZ; step-son John S. (wife Tonya) of Milton, VT; her brother Robert of Marietta, GA and many grand children, great-grand children, nieces and nephew.
Viewing will be at Herberger Family Funeral Home in Elk Grove from 2-4 pm on Wednesday May 11th, with funeral service on May 12th at 9am at Capital City Baptist Church in Elk Grove, CA. Her body will be laid to rest at the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery in Dixon, CA at 12:30 PM that afternoon.
To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.
4 Entries
Heidi
May 13, 2025
Mrs. Willard was my favorite teacher. She was a big part of my high school career and I kept in touch with her a little even through medical school. I think about her still from time to time and all of her sayings..."Peachy keen, jelly bean!" She was such a wonderful lady. I miss her.
RDB
October 14, 2024
Mrs. Willard used to tell me I was "going to be up a creek without a paddle" if I didn´t finish my work. She instilled in me a strong work ethic. She believed in me as one of the youngest (and few female) students in her advanced math class. When I moved high schools, my new teachers, so impressed with all Mrs. Willard had taught me, encouraged me to major in math. I didn´t major in math, but I set the curve for my freshman college Calculus class. When I teach my kids math, I often find myself making Mrs. Willard quips. I gained a great respect for math, women in math, and Mrs. Willard. We are all so blessed to have known such a strong, yet tender, deeply intelligent woman of God.
JULIE R Harland
February 8, 2024
From a Thank You Page in a book I wrote: "In eleventh grade, I took Algebra II/Trig with Mrs. Polly Willard. She was a great teacher. I really liked the class, she had perfect control, and always showed respect for her students. She was matter-of-fact about everything, and I liked her style even though she was strict."
Julie Harland
February 8, 2024
Is this the Mrs. Polly Willard that taught at Vista High School? If so, I loved her class, her matter-of-fact comments, and the way she taught. She was my inspiration. I ended up majoring in math, and I think when I taught at VHS from 1981-1983, we were colleagues. I went back to grad school, and had a career at MiraCosta College. In the 90s, I wrote a book for future teachers for a class I taught, and wrote a Thank You to the teachers who inspired me. I tried to find them to let them know, but this is the first time I've found anything about her on the web. My Thank you to her, which is online is at this link: https://sites.google.com/site/math105site/home/thank
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