Carrie Still Shepperson
Carrie Still Shepperson | |
|---|---|
 Carrie Still Shepperson, from a portrait made in the 1890s | |
| Born | Carrie Lena Fambro June 15, 1869 near Milledgeville, Georgia, U.S. |
| Died | May 18, 1927 (aged 57) |
| Other names | Carrie L. Still |
| Occupation | Educator |
| Children | William Grant Still Jr. |
| Relatives | Verna Arvey (daughter-in-law) |
Carrie Still Shepperson (June 15, 1869[1] – May 18, 1927) was an American educator based in Arkansas.
Early life and education
[edit]Carrie Lena Fambro was born near Milledgeville, Georgia, the daughter of Sarah Antoinette "Anne" Fambro. She graduated from Atlanta University in 1886.[2]
Career
[edit]Fambro taught at Alabama State Agricultural and Mechanical College in the early 1890s, before she married. As a young widow with a little son to support, she moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, and taught there for 30 years,[3] at Union High School from 1896 to 1902,[4] at Capital Hill School beginning in 1902,[5] and later at M. W. Gibbs High School. She created a library at the Capitol Hill School, which she funded with a benefit program of performances by students and others. After that success, she continued to stage annual shows in Little Rock, to support the city's Black schools.[2]
Shepperson also led school choirs, and directed her students in Shakespeare plays.[6] She lectured on classroom discipline at a county institute for Black teachers in 1899.[7] She was secretary of the Little Rock branch of the NAACP.[3]
Personal life
[edit]Fambro married twice, and was twice a widow. Her first husband was a fellow teacher, William Grant Still. They married in 1894 and had a son, composer and conductor William Grant Still Jr.[8][9] Her first husband died shortly after their son's birth in 1895.
Her second husband was railway postal clerk Charles B. Shepperson; they married in 1904,[10] and he died by drowning in 1922. She died in 1927, when she was about sixty years old, in Little Rock.[6] There is a large collection of her son's papers in special collections at the University of Arkansas.[11]
References
[edit]- ^ The June 15, 1869 birthdate appears in her 1927 obituary in The Crisis, and on her gravestone in Little Rock, via Find a Grave; some other sources, including the Encyclopedia of Arkansas and a 1983 article by her granddaughter, give 1872 as her birth year.
- ^ a b Gordon, Fon Louise. "Carrie Lena Fambro Still Shepperson (1872-1927)". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved 2024-02-20.
- ^ a b "Along the Color Line: Social Uplift". The Crisis. 35 (6): 196, 199. August 1927 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ "The Teachers Elected for the Next Public School Year, 1901-1902". Arkansas Democrat. 1901-06-01. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-02-20 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Assignment of Teachers". Arkansas Democrat. 1903-09-15. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-02-20 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Still, Judith Anne; Headlee, Judy Anne (1983). "Carrie Still Shepperson: The Hollows of Her Footsteps". The Arkansas Historical Quarterly. 42 (1): 37–46. doi:10.2307/40022887. ISSN 0004-1823.
- ^ "Successful Normal; Closing Day of the County Institute for Colored Teachers". Arkansas Democrat. 1899-06-17. p. 6. Retrieved 2024-02-20 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Bell, Susan (2013-01-04). "Still Life". News and Events. Retrieved 2024-02-20.
- ^ Still, Judith A.; Dabrishus, Michael J.; Quin, Carolyn (1996-08-20). William Grant Still: A Bio-Bibliography. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-0-313-25255-6.
- ^ "Marriage Licenses Issued". Daily Arkansas Gazette. 1904-11-25. p. 5. Retrieved 2024-02-20 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Collection: William Grant Still and Verna Arvey Papers". ArchivesSpace at the University of Arkansas. Retrieved 2024-02-20.