All Student Biographies

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Floyd, Rhetta Stone Ragland Hurd  (M.S., Child Development, 1942)

Headshot of Rhetta S. Ragland

Rhetta Cabrere Stone was born 7 January 1915 in Temple, TX, one of five children born to French Franklin Stone and Clotilde Cabrere Stone. She graduated from Prairie View Normal and Industrial College (now Prairie view A & M University). Following graduation, Rhetta moved to California, where she married John Garfield Ragland on 18 August 1937, in Los Angeles County. Not long after their marriage, Rhetta was teaching in Phoenix, AZ, while John stayed in Los Angeles (Chappel, 1938). By 1940, according to the U.S. Census, the couple were living even further apart, and Rhetta had found work as a Home Supervisor for the County of Hopkins, TX.

Rhetta Stone Ragland came to Iowa State College to earn her Master’s in Child Development, which she achieved in 1942. While in Ames, in fall 1941, she lived at 704 Crawford Avenue, the home of Earnest and Carrie Dannatt.

Following graduation, Rhetta 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, Anna K. Morrison 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).

By 1943, Rhetta and John Ragland had divorced (“Signal Clock,” 1943), and in 1946 she married Lt. William Peyton Hurd in Los Angeles, CA, on 20 September 1946 (California Eagle). Later in life, Rhetta married for a third time, to Walter Floyd, becoming Rhetta Floyd. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, she was mentioned in Jet magazine several times because of her society connections and the celebrations that she hosted or attended (“Society World,” 1986, 1989, 1990).

Rhetta Stone Floyd passed away on 30 June 2003 in Camarillo, CA.

Iowa State College Thesis Title: Differences between White and Negro children in two W.P.A. nursery schools as revealed by selected indexes of psychological development, 1942 

Iowa State University Library Digital Repository Link:https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/17673

Sources

Photo credit: Photo credit: Prairie View A&M University. (1943). Rhetta Ragland [Photograph]. 1943 The panther, p. 46. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.pvamu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1031&context=yearbooks  

California, county marriages, 1850-1952 [database with images]. (2021). FamilySearch. John Garfield Ragland and Rhetta Cabrere Stone, 16 Aug 1937; citing Los Angeles, California, United States, county courthouses, California; FHL microfilm 2,114,026.

California eagle. (1946, 10 Oct.). California eagle, p. 5.

Chappel, Helen F. (1938, Jun. 9). Chatter and…some news. California eagle, p. 8-A.

Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College. (1942, Oct.). Newsletter – October 1942., Vol. 12(2). Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.pvamu.edu/newsletter/123

Signal clock at Prairie View installed. (1943, Nov.-Dec.). The Prairie View Standard, p. 7.

Society world. (1986, Oct. 20). Jet, vol. 71(5), p. 32.

Society world. (1989, May 1). Jet, vol. 76(4), p. 32.

Society world. (1990, Sept. 10). Jet, vol. 78(22), p. 32.

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Evans, Anna Kathryn Evans (M.S., Textiles and Clothing, 1946)

Headshot of Anna K. Morrison

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

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Pope, Louise Isabelle Marshall (M.S., Textiles and Clothing, 1940)

Headshot of Louise Isabelle Marshall

Louise Isabelle Marshall was born on 22 July 1917 in St. Louis, Missouri, to Thomas Marshall, a mail carrier, and his wife Harriet “Hattie” E. Lewis Marshall. While attending Lincoln University, an HBCU in Jefferson City, MO, Marshall was a staff member of the Archives yearbook, the Y.W.C.A., and the Alpha Iota Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.

She earned a Bachelor’s of Science at Lincoln University in 1938 before heading to Ames, Iowa, where she earned a master’s degree in Textiles and Clothing in 1940. Her master’s thesis was entitled Micro-determination of water absorption in cotton fibers. Between 1939 and 1940 she lived at 1204 3rd Street, the Walter Madison family home.

On 6 August 1945, Louise married Alonzo Howard Pope in Boise, Idaho (Ancestry, n.d.). By 1950, the couple and their two sons, Alonzo, Jr., and Thomas, were living in Chicago, Illinois, where Louise was a homemaker and Alonzo, Sr., was employed as an office manager for Cook County Department of Public Welfare, Old Age Division.

Louise Isabelle Marshall Pope died in DeKalb, Georgia, on 14 February 1986 and is buried in Crest Lawn Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia.

Iowa State College Thesis Title: Micro-determination of water absorption in cotton fibers, 1940 

Iowa State University Library Digital Repository Link: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/17679 

Sources

Photo credit: Lincoln University. (1938). The Archives, 1938, p. 41. Retrieved from https://mdh.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/lincyrbk2/id/5876/rec/10

Ancestry.com. (n.d.). Idaho, U.S., county marriage records, 1864-1967. Louise Isabelle Marshall, Ada County, Marriage Ledger: 1945.

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