Noted Oakland educator dies
By Chauncey Bailey ,STAFF WRITER

Uline Lovelady Hughes-Appling -- an educator for more than four decades, including 26 years in Oakland -- had a passion for learning that she instilled in her students and her own children.

Ms. Hughes-Appling died on July 5 at her home in Lincoln, Texas. She was 77.

"It has always been my desire to have a life of completeness, spiritually, educationwide and down-to-earthness," she told friends several years ago. "I have given all that is within me, and I'm still giving."

She graduated from Samuel Houston College, with a doublemajor in music and science; received a master's degree in music education from Texas Southern University, Houston; and a doctorate in education from Lincoln University, San Francisco.

She also studied at Patten Bible College and Holy Names College in Oakland; California State University, Hayward; Texas Tech University in Lubbock; the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque; and the Boston Conservatory of Music.

Early in her 43-year-career Ms. Hughes-Appling taught in Texas and in New Mexico on a Navajo Indian reservation, before coming to Oakland to teach and later become an administrator. She taught at Webster and Hamilton elementary schools and King Middle School. At Castlemont High School she taught mathematics and science, and headed the science department.

Between 1974 and 1976, she was vice principal at Fremont and Oakland high schools.

Over the years, she received several awards for being an outstanding teacher, and once directed the 300-member Junior High Voice Choir of Oakland.

Ms. Hughes-Appling was active in her church and civic affairs. At the Palma Ceia Baptist Church in Hayward, she was director of the choir and an organist. Ms. Hughes-Appling was past president of Delta Sigma Theta Berkeley/Bay Area Alumni Chapter, and a member of the Oakland Symphony Chorus.

A lifelong member of the NAACP, she was the first African-American singer with the Amarillo Texas Symphony Chorus and performed opera in Boston.

She was an avid reader, loved playing the piano and liked colorful clothing, fancy hats and bold jewelry.

"We always wondered where she found the strength to teach all day and then come home and motivate her four children about the importance of education," said Dr. Vicki Hughes, one of her daughters, and an optometrist for Kaiser Permanente in Union City. "She always pursued learning."

Ms. Hughes-Appling is survived by her husband, Sydney King Appling; her children, Thomas D. Hughes and Mimi Hughes, both of Texas; Kathlyn Hughes of Castro Valley; sisters, Fannie Lovelady Spain-Dawson and Artis Ruth Hopkins; and brothers, Willie Henry Lovelady and Brent Lovelady.

Memorial services were held at Bethel St. Paul Baptist Church in Giddings, Texas, on July 10.