Bess Cherry (1877-1954)

Biography

Bess Lysle Fayne was born in Crab Orchard, Lincoln County, Kentucky in 1877. She graduated from the Elliott Institute of Kirksville, Kentucky in 1895 and enrolled at the Southern Normal School in Bowling Green that same year. She married Henry Hardin Cherry on April 3, 1896. In the early 1900s, she served part-time on the faculty of the Southern Normal School as Director of Social Features of the Institution. She was also a member of the board of The National School of Telegraphy, Civil Service, Railroading and Express, a department operated by the Southern Normal School. In 1927, she organized the Faculty Wives Club (now Western Kentucky University Women) and served as its first president. Bess Cherry died November 17, 1954.

Collection

The collection consists primarily of personal correspondence with family and friends. It contains news and information about her children, Josephine, Elizabeth and Henry Hardin, Jr. (Hardin); her recovery from a cracked bone suffered after a fall in the summer of 1936; her dissatisfaction with a Studebaker automobile she purchased in 1936; and the death of Henry Hardin Cherry on August 1, 1937. Correspondence from H. H. Cherry in 1934 tells news of their children, events on campus, his lobbying efforts in Frankfort, and his trouble with a broken toe. A letter from Mary (probably Mary A. Leiper) gives an account of her transport to Bowling Green of refugees from the 1937 Louisville flood. The collection also contains a speech and several monographs by Mrs. Cherry, as well as copies of a published short story, "Parlance of Kentucky Backwoods", and an essay, "Motherhood Adrift".

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Volume

0.2 cubic feet