While I was driving in to work this morning and doing the usual "letting my mind wander," my memory flashed on a moment our Junior year before a football game. All the Lassies and Brahmadoras surely must remember Ms. Tankersly. She always seemed a little formidable to me and someone I definitely did not want to upset. As I remember it, she was upset with the performance we had turned in at practice that week or something (I am a little vague here) but she had us all lined up in formation outside the stadium before the game and was letting us know exactly how unhappy she was. Her final line was - "You can either ship up or shape out!!!" It was truly an effort not to laugh but she looked way too upset to risk it in front of her..... Part of me hopes she never knew she twisted her words. We all obviously aimed to do our very best performance that night! Anyone else remember that moment? Hope everyone is doing well

I totally remember that and have thought about it and laughed SO many times in the years since!!!!!  We were outside the stadium, right??   I'm pretty sure that I did laugh out loud!!!  I remember being screamed at by her many times!!!  I remember being screamed at one time because I was laughing on the bus after we lost a basketball game.......apparently, I wasn't mourning, as was expected!! 

Ms. Tankersly was both terrifying and irritating.  But she is one of the few people I have known with absolute authority.

If she told us (the Brahmadoras)once, she told us 100 times that we were Lassies the same as everyone else.  But she seemed to like the "real" Lassies so much better than she liked us.

She decided to get us to do some marching in one of the halftimes, and we had never practiced marching and we were awful.  That caused her to be more frustrated and scream at us more.  I'm glad I didn't have to watch us try to keep straight lines in some sort of pinwheel formation she decided on.

Does anyone remember getting bathroom breaks during a game?  When did we get anything to drink?  Did we get anything to drink?

I think I'm still afraid I might run into her and get a good, solid dressing down.

Imagine running into Ms. Tankersly as a young adult in your twenties. Well, that is exactly what happened to me! I was about 24 years old and teaching in Austin. I went over to a teacher's house and who was there at happy hour? Ms. Tankersly! I almost threw up. Turns out she was a pretty nice lady after all. She had adopted a little boy and was quite friendly. I heard some stories from her that made me blush!

Susan, you won't have to worry about running into her. She passed away a few years ago. Remember Mr. Campbell, the physics teacher who could draw a perfect circle without looking? He, too, passed away a few years ago. He was still teaching at Mac.

Do y'all remember how hot it was when we practiced in the summer?  (It sure seemed like it was 100 degrees or hotter!) I remember once when she was lining us up on the pavement, and we had to stand there forever (without water, right, Susan?) and I actually fainted!  I NEVER faint, but I did that day, and I will never forget waking up as I hit the ground, and Miss Tankersley was standing over me.  She said, "Who do you think you are, fainting like that!!  Now everyone will get the idea to faint!! "  Huh?

Hi ladies,

I thought that I would give y'all a perspective on Ms. Tankersly from the band point of view.  Being drum major, yes, I got yelled at almost as much as you did by her.  She was tough.  I learned that John Pearson and LaNeal had been good friends for years.  When Kort Ogden, Steve Spencer and I joined the Pearson's cover band, we played at the officers' clubs around the Air Force bases in San Antonio and Austin.  Regularly, LaNeal would come by herself, sit at the bar listening to us all night, having cocktails.  Under those circumstances, she was warm and friendly, and actually quite funny and relaxed.  I came to realize that her act on the football field was just that: an act.  She was very respectful to us three guys in the combo, and I came to understand that she was very lonely.  I miss her, actually.

Ok guys I have several memories of Ms. Tankersley and some of them aren't as bad as yours.  I do remember being caught with those shorts covered bya skirt and my mom had to bring me a change of clothes. She got mad at me sometimes for not being as enthusiastic as I needed to since  I was suppose to be a leader.  I could always tell how she felt the pep rallies were going based on her face.  Remember the trip to Monterrey, Mexico.  I'll never forget when I heard we were in a parade I was excited.  I didn't know WE were the parade.  A boy reached out to touch one of the girls and she hit him with here umbrella!  I was a PE major and I have to say she influence my decision in a positive way.  At our goodbye dinner my mom and I thought it would be nice to give her a bottle that had a song playing the lassie song.........a bottle of scotch!  I am sure she appreciated it but hid it quickly.  ON that same note I ran into her at several PE conventions and we actually had drinks together,  Adult to adult she was a hoot.

The memories of "The Tank" as some referred to Ms. Tankersly are great.  My first memory of her was when I was in 8th grade and my cousin was head cheerleader at the time and had not taken care of her pompoms as she should; scared me silly, but when I was a freshman and my cousin had come back as the past homecoming queen and let me go with her Ms. Tankersly was really nice to me and interested in what I was going to do while at Mac.  Having a child graduate from Mac and seeing how standards had changed since I was there; says a lot about her character and the way she held true to the standards she felt were best for us.  As a Bramadora I knew we were to be at our best when she was watching or we would hear about.  Oh, the good old days.  And YES!, it was hot and sticky and getting dressed in a tent in the morning, trying not to have a bad hair day was no fun at all!!!

It is good to hear that Ms. Tankersley did have a human side.  Simply stated, she scared the socks off me the whole time I was at MacArthur.  We all had heard that she was ex-military and that was why she "was the way she was."  My encounter with  her was the time I had the misfortune to be touching up my hair in the girls restroom in the math wing.  There were some smokers in the stalls puffing away.  I didn't have the sense to leave before the Tank came crashing in ordering everyone OUT NOW!!  The door actually hit the wall.  Toilets were flushing like mad as they ditched the evidence.  As she rounded them up, her glare fell on me.  I was completely frozen, not knowing whether to run, say something or hope she chose to ignore me.  I lucked out.  She ignored me!