Cassandra “Sandy” Osborne, 74, a longtime history teacher at Oak Ridge High School, has died. The family will receive friends 12-1 p.m. Saturday, September 9, 2023, at Weatherford Mortuary in Oak Ridge. Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m.
She attended the all-Black Scarboro Elementary School and later Robertsville Junior High and Oak Ridge High School. The transition to schools where she was a minority was “a strange one,” according to her obituary. But she learned how to relate to diverse groups of people.
Ms. Osborne never missed the Dean’s List and graduated in four years from Warren Wilson College while working in the work-study program. She taught briefly in Asheville, North Carolina, before getting a contract to teach at ORHS. She was employed there from 1973 until her retirement in 2010.
A lifelong learner, she obtained a master’s degree in social science education from the University of Tennessee and took additional hours from UT and Roane State Community College in computer science.
She taught Advanced Placement U.S. history and was a reader for the AP history program. Other achievements are listed in the obituary. Her students surely benefited from her humor, wisdom and tenacity.