When her sister graces the stage during tomorrow's Three Rivers College commencement ceremony, Janice Duncan will be in the audience clanging her cowbell and celebrating the same achievement she earned 50 years before.
"I think our family is unique anyway and for her to graduate 50 years after I did is awesome," Duncan said.
Amber Hornbeck was born in March of 1968, when Duncan was 18-years-old. A member of the College's first graduating class, Duncan remembers the morning her youngest sister was born.
"When my mother had Amber, my best friend and I cut class and went to the hospital and waited with my dad," Duncan said. "It was pretty unique because I had a baby sister, but I was also embarrassed."
When Duncan graduated in 1969 with her Associates degree, 1-year-old Amber was there. Now 50, she said though the timing was accidental, it is appropriate because of the role Duncan plays in her life.
"I actually didn't realize I'd be graduating on the 50th anniversary until midway through the spring semester," Hornbeck said. "Even though our mother was a good mother, (Janice) has really taken on a similar role in my life and she has taken on a grandmother role to (my son) Cooper."
Duncan said the pair are great friends, but also great sisters.
"We're very close," she added.
Hornbeck said because of their age difference, she often spent time with her sister before she started school and in the summers, describing herself as a "kid in residence" for Duncan and her husband who have no children of their own.
Duncan said after graduating from Arkansas State University with a teaching degree, she often took Hornbeck to school with her during the early years of her career in Portageville, Mo.
"I would stay in the classroom all day and interact with the kids and play," Hornbeck said of her pre-kindergarten days. "I don't remember too much, but she would also take me to school with her in the summers to get her classroom ready for the following school year. I was in that mix all the time and played school all the time."
Hornbeck said the memories of spending time in her sister's classroom greatly influenced her current goal to become a teacher.
"She has influenced everything I've done, pretty much," Hornbeck said. "My brother and I call her the queen. She is the queen of our family."
Aside from graduating on Duncan's 50th anniversary, earning a degree in itself is another commonality the sisters share.
"I'll actually be the only second one of us to graduate from college," Hornbeck said. "There are four siblings and she and I will be the only two with college degrees and our parents did not, nor did our grandparents."
Hornbeck said graduating from college is a long held goal and fulfills a promise she made to her parents before they passed away.
"I promised my parents I would finish someday even though I didn't know when," she added.
Duncan said watching her sister attend the same college she helped create was a rewarding experience.
"It's come a long way and I'm impressed now with the quality of education that you can get at a junior college," Duncan said. "The courses that Amber is taking are higher level courses. We couldn't do anything like that back when we started."
"She and I compared teacher application classes and the differences between things that I'm taking now, even at this level, as what she was taking getting a bachelors are huge," Hornbeck said.
Duncan said when she enrolled as part of the first group of Three Rivers students in downtown Poplar Bluff, she quickly became involved with laying the groundwork for future students.
"It's funny that it started in this little building," she said. "I was on student government both years. We decided the colors. We decided the yearbook, the newspaper and the mascot for the basketball team. Our group of people who started that first year decided all that and now, look how far its come."
Duncan said Three Rivers is a significant part of the community's history.
"There were lots of kids here from, at that time, Broseley, Fisk, Qulin, Ellsinore, a few from Greenville," she said. "All of us were basketball rivalries and we all came together, along with the faculty, to create this wonderful institution that has just grown leaps and bounds."
Hornbeck said she chose TRC not because her sister went there, but because of what she felt were elements she valued in an institution.
"Number one, locale of course," Hornbeck said. "And there is a teaching program available now in conjunction with (Southeast Missouri State University) and some other colleges, of course, that allow us to take classes on campus so I will no longer have to drive back and forth to SEMO as people did years ago to attain a BSE. I chose Three Rivers because of the teaching program, the locale and the ability to bridge between my two year and four year degree."
In comparing their experiences at the college, the pair feel the differences are remarkable.
"There wasn't any restriction on hair even though it was 1967 when it started but the girls could not wear pants," Duncan said.
"And now, students can take classes online or through ITV and a lot of times they come to class wearing sweat pants," Hornbeck added.
According to the sisters, many tears will be shed tomorrow as the 300 students walk across the stage of the Black River Coliseum. Mostly tears of happiness, they agreed, as Hornbeck prepares to begin the next leg of her journey through Southeast.
"I couldn't have done it without her," Hornbeck said. "Well, I could have done it, but the burden may not have been eased as much. She is my sounding board."