Obit: Draper, Bernice (1895 - 1975)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Draper, Kayhart, Swann, Hills, Anderson, Black, Lindners, Trindal, Schuette, Prior, Baughman, Oestreich, Carlson

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 3/13/1975

Draper, Bernice (26 May 1895 – February 1975)

Miss Bernice Draper, 79, of Greensboro, N.C., died at the Greensboro Wesley Long Hospital, Greensboro. Services were held at St. Andres Episcopal Church, Greensboro followed by memorial services at 11 a.m., Satruday, March 1, at the Rinka Funeral Home, Loyal, with the Rev. Gene Carlson in charge. Burial was made in the Draper plot at the Loyal Cemetery.

Miss Draper, the daughter of Fred and Amy (Kayhart) Draper, was born May 26, 1895, in Loyal. The Draper name was prominent in early settlement of Loyal, with her grandfather, Horace Draper, settling in the timber near the edge of the first platting of the Village of Loyal. Her father followed in the profession of teaching. The elder Draper held the first teaching certificate in Clark County. Fred Draper also served 10 years as Clark County Clerk of Court, followed by a term in the State Assembly. Miss Draper was a niece of the late Mrs. William Swann of Neillsville.

Bernice Draper attended Neillsville High School and was graduated from the Loyal High School in 1913. She took a number of subjects the following year at Marshfield High School before entering Lawrence College, Appleton, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree, graduating summa cum laude in 1919, and later took her master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin.

She taught one term in a one-room rural school south of Loyal, and in 1919-1921 taught all history courses at Marvin College in Fredericktown, Mo.

In 1922 she became an instructor at North Carolina College for Women, being promoted to assistant professor in 1926, associate professor in 1935 and professor in 1949. In 1959 she retired from full-time faculty duty but continued on part-time basis through 1966. In time the North Carolina College became the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.

During World War II Miss Draper served as chairman of the Women’s College Red Cross fund. She was a founding member of the college chapter of the Phi Alpha Theta, an honorary history organization, in which she also held a national office.

Her travels had taken her to Europe several times, as well as to South America and Africa.

At the funeral services at Loyal pallbearers were: Bill Trindal, Art Schuette, Allan Prior, Ernest Baughman, Lothar Oestreich and Al Hills.

Survivors include a foster brother, Harold Hills of Loyal; and three cousins: Irene (Kayhart) Anderson, and Ines (Kayhart) Black, both of Kempster and Mildred (Kayhart) Linders, of Missouri.