Anna Kathryn Morrison was born 13 May 1920, one of seven children born to Theodore Morrison and his wife Margaret M. Lewis Morrison, in Webster Groves, Missouri. She completed a Bachelor’s Degree at Lincoln University and a Master’s in Textiles and Clothing at ISC in 1946. She used her undergraduate degree in her job as a vocational home economics teacher in Lexington, MO (Prairie View A&M, 1943). Anna began teaching at Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College (later Prairie View A & M University) in 1942 and was listed as “MS, Iowa” in the October 1942 “Newsletter” (Prairie View, 1942). Since her fellow ISC alumna, Rhetta Ragland began teaching at Prairie View the same year and is also listed as having an M.S. from “Iowa,” it’s likely that the university was simply not aware that Iowa State College needed to be distinguished from the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa). Why Morrison is listed as having the M.S. when her thesis date at ISC is 1946 is unknown; perhaps she had started coursework already in 1942. While she acquired her M.S. in Ames, during the winter term of 1945, Anna lived at 218 Lincoln Way, the home of Archie and Nancy Martin.
Anna later left Prairie View and began a 35-year career with the St. Louis Public Schools, teaching first as a home economics teacher at Vashon High School and later at northwest and Soldan High Schools. At some point after 1950, she married Clifford H. Evans, Jr., principal of the Dunbar and Enright Schools and later Assistant Superintendent of St. Louis School. An active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church Altar Guild, and the Lincoln University Alumni Association, she has a scholarship fund in her name at Lincoln: the Anna Morrison Evans Education Major Scholarship. She was also an avid golfer, who won many trophies and awards for her prowess on the links in competitions around the world. (“Anna M. Evans,” 1995).
She died 27 Oct. 1995 in St. Louis, MO, and is buried at St. Peter’s Cemetery there.
Iowa State College Thesis Title: Type and amount of informative labeling found on children’s clothing, sizes 2 to 8 inclusive, 1946
Iowa State University Library Digital Repository Link: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/17675
Sources
Photo credit: Prairie View A&M University. (1943). Anna K. Morrison [Photograph]. 1943 The panther, p. 45. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.pvamu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1031&context=yearbooks
Anna M. Evans; Teacher, champion golfer. (1995, Oct. 31). St. Louis post-dispatch. p.9.
Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College. (1942, Oct.). Newsletter – October 1942., Vol. 12(2). Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.pvamu.edu/newsletter/123
