Brownwood’s Barbara Grooms, a 1959 Howard Payne University graduate, has been selected by the HPU Women’s Club to receive the 2024 Yellow Rose Award. Grooms will be recognized at the club’s annual Yellow Rose Scholarship Luncheon, scheduled for Thursday, April 25, in the Beadel Dining Hall of HPU’s Mabee University Center. The sponsored event is made possible due to the support of area businesses and friends of HPU.

Lesley (Collier) Wyse ’72 will be this year’s keynote speaker. Also at the luncheon, the Women’s Club will honor the 2024 Yellow Rose Scholarship recipients. Those interested in purchasing tickets should contact the Office of Advancement at 325-649-8007.

HPU made an impression on Grooms from a young age. She grew up just two blocks from HPU and recalls walking across campus on the way to church. Upon her graduation from high school, Grooms attended classes at HPU and served as campus telephone operator. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in education, minoring in art education and religious education, as a result of her calling to education and ministry.

After graduating from HPU, Grooms moved to Arvada, Colorado, where she spent five years teaching. Each summer, she returned to Brownwood for her summer job. During one of these summers she met Dwayne Grooms, and the couple were married in 1964. For the next 16 years, she stayed home to care for their two children, David and LeAnna, and assisted her husband with the family business.

Grooms then served 25 years as secretary for First Baptist Church, Brownwood. In her role there, she had many opportunities to get to know HPU students, some of whom were interns at the church, and enjoyed hosting college dinners at their home. She and her husband “adopted” a multitude of HPU students through the church’s Student Adoption Ministry program, which was designed to integrate HPU students into the church and provide them with a family while away from home. During that time, Grooms also made many lifelong friendships with ministers and their spouses and enjoyed teaching third grade Sunday school. She and her husband continue to be faithful members of the church.

Since retirement, she has remained a dedicated HPU alumna. In 2011 she was named HPU’s Coming Home Queen. She also supported her husband as he served on the Board of Trustees. She has always cherished her connection with HPU and the dear friends she has made with students, their families, faculty and staff through the years.