Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Fearless Females' Education

 From Randy (a cousin discovery!!) over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

(1)  It's National Women's History Month, so I'm going to use today's prompt from Lisa Alzo on her The Accidental Genealogist Blog.  What education did your mother receive? Your grandmothers? Great-grandmother's?  Note any advanced degrees or special achievements.

(2)  Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, in a post on Facebook, or on Twitter.  

Here's mine:

(1)  My mother, Linda Tapley (1942-) went to various schools in "The Valley" in California as a young child.  Her father moved the family often, following work.  She graduated from Redlands High School, Redlands, California in 1960.  She graduated from San Bernardino Valley College in San Bernardino, California in 1962.  Then the family moved back east to Tallahassee, Florida, and she attended Florida State University for a short while. 

Linda Irene Tapley, 1962
Graduation from San Bernardino Valley College

 

(2) My maternal grandmother, Ethel Irene Ranney Tapley (1913-1973), grew up in Duplain, Michigan so I assume she attended elementary school there.  She was probably about 9 or 10 when the family moved to California so she would have continued her elementary schooling there.  She graduated from Redlands High School in 1932. In her 1933 diary, she writes of attending school, but she never mentions what kind of school. My mother let me know that Grandma went to business school.

Ethel Irene Ranney, 1932
Redlands High School Senior Portrait

(3) My paternal grandmother, Nealie Drake Tapley (1895-1970), grew up in the Adrian area of Emanuel County, Georgia.  I assume she attended school there, but I have no information about her education.  What I do know is that my grandmother was a dedicated organist who drove her horse and buggy probably 10 miles or more each way to play the organ at Powell's Chapel Church every Sunday.  

(4)  My great-grandmother, Bessie Alice Carter Ranney (1883-1960), grew up and attended school in Eagle Grove, Iowa.  She graduated from Eagle Grove High School in 1901.  She married five years later, and I do not know if she attended any college in between.  My mother  shared that Bessie attended "normal school" after high school. This was higher education for girls at that time to provide them enough education to teach school before they married.  

Bessie Alice Carter, 1901
Eagle Grove (Iowa) Graduation Photo

I do not know anything about the education or talents of my other great-grandmothers:  Emma Vermell Harrell Drake (1867-1935) of Emanuel County, Georgia; Elizabeth Rebecca "Becky" Page Tapley (1844-1924) of Johnson County, Georgia; or Mattie Schwalls Tapley (1877-1912) of Johnson County, Georgia.  I can only guess that some may have attended elementary school or high school, but none of them attended college.  

(I am sure I will be updating this post after my mother reads it and provides corrections and/or additions.  ;)

(Told ya! ;)