Sylvia Turner, affectionately known to generations of Lafayette families as “Ms. T,” joins Discover Lafayette to reflect upon a remarkable life of teaching, music, faith, and service to others. For more than five decades, beginning in 1972, Sylvia taught children and adults to swim in the backyard pool of her Lafayette home. But anyone fortunate enough to have taken lessons from Ms. T knows she taught much more than swimming. She taught safety. She taught respect. She taught children to encourage one another, to follow rules, to appreciate their parents, and perhaps most importantly, to believe they could do things that initially frightened them. “One of my greatest compliments was when people would say, ‘You don’t just teach swimming, do you?’” Sylvia recalls. “I said, ‘No, I don’t. I teach everything I can while I can.’” Two Lives: Ms. T and Sylvia the Singer Many Lafayette residents knew Sylvia exclusively as Ms. T, the swim teacher who could spend long summer days in the pool working with one class after another. Others knew an entirely different Sylvia Turner, a classically trained singer whose musical life was intertwined with that of her late husband, John Turner. Sylvia grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, and came to Lafayette with John, who taught voice at UL for 34 years. Sylvia later received an opera scholarship, and the couple performed opera together as well as singing at university commencement ceremonies. She also became a fixture at the Order of Troubadours ball, serving as the opening soloist for “Make Believe” for 40 years. The separation between her two worlds occasionally created funny moments. Sylvia remembers singing at a commencement ceremony when a family approached her afterward, looking puzzled. “Ms. T, is that you? Did you sing?” “Yes,” she answered. “In the singing world, a lot of people didn’t know that I taught swimming,” Sylvia says. “And then in the swimming world, a lot of people didn’t know that I sang.” Sylvia Turner is an active member of Chorale Acadienne. She is pictured fourth from left in the photo. A Fear of Water Leads to a Lifetime in the Pool It is fitting that Sylvia ultimately devoted so much of her life to teaching people to be comfortable in the water, because she did not learn to swim herself until she was 11 years old. Her mother, Lucille, had nearly drowned at age 18. The experience was so traumatic that Sylvia grew up repeatedly hearing, “Don’t go near the water.” Eventually, her mother enrolled her in Red Cross swimming lessons at a park pool. Sylvia loved the water immediately. At the end of the lessons, the instructor announced a swim meet. Sylvia entered, won a red ribbon for second place, and, as she puts it, “I was hooked.” Her mother began allowing her to spend time at the pool, where Sylvia became fascinated by a group of young men who were accomplished divers. She simply asked them if they would teach her. They did. Before long, Sylvia was diving from the three-meter board and later competed as a diver when she was 13 and 14 years old. Eventually, voice training began competing with diving for her attention, but her love of the water never disappeared. The Pool That Started It All Sylvia’s path to becoming one of Lafayette’s best-known swim instructors began with a frustrating afternoon at Riverside pool. Sylvia and her husband, John, were living in River’s Bend with their three children when, on a beautiful sunny day, the lifeguard announced everyone had to leave the pool because he needed to take a test and there was no one qualified to substitute for him. Sylvia was not pleased. “I went home and I said to my husband, ‘You know, if I had a lifesaving badge, I could have gotten up on the stand and we could have kept the pool open.’” John’s response was simple: go get it. Sylvia and a friend took a lifesaving class at Girard Park. At the conclusion of the course, the instructor assigned Sylvia two women from a mothers’ swimming program to teach. “My ladies did beautifully,” she remembers. “And so I was further hooked.” As Sylvia and John prepared to build their new home, she began thinking about adding a swimming pool. The price gave her pause, particularly when they realized it would effectively double their house payment. Sylvia had an answer. “Oh, John, if I paid for it, could we do it?” How would she pay for it? “I could teach.” And that is exactly what she did. Sylvia began teaching swimming lessons in 1972. Her first student was a young man she met through the grocery store who was preparing to get married. His future wife could swim, he could not, and he did not want to be the person sitting on the beach while everyone else enjoyed the water. Sylvia taught him to swim. Years later, he returned with his children. It was the beginning of generations of Lafayette families learning from Ms, T. Safety Came First Before any child entered Sylvia’s pool, ...
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