Kathy Huffstedler grew up in the countryside of Springtown, the oldest of four children, and graduated from Springtown High School in 1961. She comes from a family of educators, and she never dreamed of becoming anything more. She has three aunts who taught elementary school and one who taught high school.
After high school, she attended the University of North Texas where she met and married her husband, Don, during college. After graduating in 1966, Huffstedler started her teaching career as a home economics teacher in Pampa — in the Texas panhandle — alongside her husband, who was coaching and teaching; the couple taught there for several years. Later, they moved to Marlin for 11 months, where she taught homebound — a temporary educational program for students who cannot attend school for extended periods of time. As a homebound teacher, she went to students’ homes to help them with schoolwork. She taught anything from freshman English to calculus.
Then in 1973, she began her teaching career in Azle ISD as a home economics teacher at Azle High School, where she worked alongside Suzanne Murr and Iris Hamilton. Part of her role there was to the AHS chapter of Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, formerly known as Future Homemakers of America. During her time in Azle, she was also the head of the Career and Technical Education department. She taught at Azle High School for about 33 years and retired in 2006. The last classes she taught were Food Nutrition and Ready, Set, Teach.
