Two distinguished alumnae were honored by Dover Public School during its graduation ceremonies last month.

Earning the “Longhorn Leaders” award for 2019 were Joan Burge Schilde and Sherry Prim Junius.

The youngest of Ervin and Rosie Prim’s 14 children, Junius graduated from Dover High School in 1989.

While at Dover, Junius was a member of the five-girl Class B state champion track team in 1988 and earned All-State in basketball in 1989.

Junius graduated from Phillips University in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in sports medicine. She enlisted in the United States Army, serving two tours at Fort Riley, Kan., along with tours in Germany, Fort Sill and Fort Drum. She was deployed twice to Iraq and once to Afghanistan and Kuwait.

Junius worked as a petroleum supply specialist, responsible for filling up vehicles and also with maintaining aircraft when she was assigned to an aviation unit.

After 22 years in the U.S. Army, Junius retired as a staff sergeant with an E6 ranking in May 2018.

Junius met her husband, Nathaniel, while she was serving in the Army. They have two children, Kierra and Randy and Junius now works for the U.S. Post Office and resides in Mustang.

Schilde graduated from DHS in 1972. The daughter of Clifford and Anna Jo Burge, she spent most of her childhood working in her parents’ grocery store and meat processing plant in Dover.

She received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Central Oklahoma with minors in language arts and diagnostic/reading remediation. Schilde also received her master’s degree in special education from UCO.

Schilde began her teaching career at Dover where she taught special education to all grade levels. She also served as federal programs director and the district testing coordinator.

After 19 years at Dover, Schilde took a position with Hennessey Public Schools.

While at Hennessey, she taught all subject areas in both the alternative education and the special education programs.

In 2015, after 12 years with Hennessey, Schilde retired, but went back to Hennessey teaching part-time.

While at Hennessey, Schilde was chosen as teacher of the year in 2008 and 2018.

Schilde has been married to Jim Schilde, also a Dover graduate, for 47 years and resides in Dover. Together they have three children who are all Dover graduates: Jan Swart, Aaron Schilde and Adam Schilde. The Schildes have 10 grandchildren.

Junius and Schilde make 28 Longhorn Leaders since Dover Student Council began selecting them in 2008.

The council opted to select honorees in two categories: Those who have served as educators and those who have served their community and/or country.

Each honoree is chosen by a panel of current students and teachers, former teachers and Dover community members.