(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- It’s an accomplishment 70 years in the making.
Geneseo resident Joyce DeFauw received her bachelor's degree in General Studies from Northern Illinois University.
The 90-year-old gives new meaning to the phrase “super senior,” which was written across her graduation cap. She becomes one of the university’s oldest graduates.
“I came to Northern in 1951,” she said in a special video highlighting some of NIU’s recent graduates. “I was the first one in the family that went away to college.”
Pursuing a degree in early elementary education, DeFauw’s studies were put on hold.
“At church, I met this good-looking guy and things happened, and so we decided to get married,” she said. “So I quit school after 3 1/2 years.”
DeFauw had three children with her husband, who died three years later.
She was then widowed for five years, remarried and had six more children.
In addition to her nine children, DeFauw now has 17 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.
With a little encouragement from her family, DeFauw went back to NIU in 2019 to finish what she started.
“I’m very thankful,” she said in the video. “Other people had faith in me, which I didn’t have in myself. But I’m here and got to see it to the bitter end — not bitter, a good end.”
The 90-year-old was met by a cheering crowd as she stood up from her wheelchair and walked across the stage during Sunday’s fall commencement ceremony.
“You can never quit learning,” she said. “Congratulations Class of 2022. We did it!”
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