STELLA TAYLOR Correspondence II

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY
Series 19: STUDENTS
Stella Taylor, Student 1934-1938
Stella Taylor Correspondence II
1939-1940

07_2452 Community Service Group. (from back) Lucille Christian, Georgia Ayers, Nan Milan, Nancy Jude, Stella Taylor. [098_IX_students_07_2452_001.jpg]

TAGS: Stella Taylor correspondence, PMSS students, Pine Mountain Settlement School, Nan Cox Hare, Berea School of Nursing, community group at PMSS, Norwood Hospital, Mabel (Mable) Weaver, teachers’ evaluations, Stella Taylor school records

STELLA TAYLOR Correspondence II, 1939-1940

[Note: Letters from PMSS staff in the PMSS Collections are carbon copies, typewritten, unsigned, and meant for the Office files. The original signed documents were sent to the correspondents. Letters from Stella Taylor are handwritten originals and those from others are typewritten originals.]

1939

042 March 25, 1939. To Mrs. Nan Cox Hare, Berea School of Nursing, Berea (Ky.) College from [truncated page], stating that “Stella Taylor wishes to submit her application now for the fall term” at the Berea School of Nursing. According to a previous conversation, “Berea would consider for the School of Nursing our graduates who had had two years of our Community Class work.”

Stella’s Scholastic Ability Test results indicate “that she is capable of carrying college work.” Also,

Other factors…are her willing and cooperative spirit to learn and to do; her good health; her fine attitude toward herself in relation to her classmates, to the school, and to her community; and her habit of evaluation of her own conduct and ideas in relation to the economics, social, and political background in which she lives.

The writer then gives reasons why Berea would be a good fit for Stella.

043 March 28, 1939. To Glyn Morris, Director, PMSS, from Mrs. Nan Cox Hare, R.N., Superintendent of Nurses, Berea (Ky.) College Hospital, requesting a reference for “Miss Stella Taylor, who is applying for admission into our August 1939 class.…” Hare provides a description of the training school which “runs in connection with Berea College Hospital….” and describes the qualities that the student must have to be accepted.

044 March 28, 1939. To Miss Grace M. Rood, PMSS Nurse, from Mrs. Nan Cox Hare, Berea College Hospital, requesting a reference for Stella Taylor.

045 March 29, 1939. To Miss Adelaide Grundlach, Registrar, Berea College, from Esther Weller, Student Counselor, informing her that Stella’s application has been submitted to the School of Nursing. Weller lists Stella’s qualifications, including “the respect she has gained from the people in her isolated rural community which needs a public health nurse, [and] the fine record she has made here.” Weller asks “to what extent the lack of certain standard high school subjects will be held against [Stella]….” She cites the evaluation of PMSS made by the Cooperative Study of Secondary School Standards, including 80% on Curriculum.

046-047 March 30, 1939. Two-page letter to Mrs. Cox from G.M. Rood, providing a reference for Stella. Rood begins with Stella’s home life and family, and describes her demeanor: “She is mature for her age,…quiet and calm in her work, and with people giving them a feeling of confidence in her.” Rood describes Stella’s positive impact on the community. Stella has been earning $10 a month which she has been saving for her education “and I stand ready to help her financially….”

048 April 4, 1939. To Mrs. Cox from [unsigned], providing a reference for Stella Taylor, telling about her home and family, her work with the community group, and her character.

049 April 6, 1939. To Miss Weller from Miss Gundlach, explaining “that Berea College has agreed to follow the University of Kentucky in accepting the preparation of Pine Mountain applicants, even though they do not have our particular pattern of required units… We accept the judgment of the Pine Mountain authorities that the pupil is ready for college.” The college will still require results from the English and Scholastic Ability Tests of the Kentucky Testing Service.

050 April 24, 1939. To Miss Gundlach from Miss Weller, stating that “Stella is quite ready for college work” and providing Stella’s test scores.

051 May 1, 1939. To Miss Helen McLean, Superintendent of Nurses, Norwood Hospital, Birmingham, AL, from Miss Weller, who is glad to hear “that Mabel Weaver is doing well in nurse training.” Mabel’s classmate, Stella, would like to apply to Norwood. (After graduating in 1938, Stella continued work – recreational, handcraft, nursing, library, and visiting – in the Community Class as a postgraduate student.) Weller continues describing Stella’s qualifications. She encloses a Cumulative Record of Stella’s high school work.

052 May 8, 1939. To Miss Weller from Miss H. MacLean, R.N., Superintendent, Norwood Hospital, Birmington, AL, stating that Stella’s forms have been received, but requested another copy of the Cumulative Record. She reports that Mabel Weaver is ‘doing nicely…always cooperative and doing the right thing.”

053 June 10, 1939. To Bob Taylor, Big Laurel, KY, from E. [Everett] K. Wilson, Principal, reporting on Stella’s work at PMSS, which he praises. Stella has been accepted for Berea Nursing School. “We shall always think of Stella with pride and affection,”

054 June 10, 1939. Carbon copy of a letter to “Sir” from Linna H. Denny, R.N., Secretary-Treasurer, State Board of Nurse Examiners, Birmingham, AL, asking if the high school at PMSS is accredited, information that is needed to consider Stella Taylor’s application. Encloses a form to be completed.

055 June 13, 1939. To Miss Denny from Miss Weller, who reports that Stella has been accepted to the Berea School of Nursing and withdraws her application to Norwood Hospital.

056 June 20, 1939. To Morris from Stella, reporting that her mother died on June 19, and asking if he would conduct a service for her later today. Her mother will be buried at the Nolan graveyard at Pine Mountain.

1940

057 January 26, 1940. To Mr. and Mrs. Morris from Stella, expressing her sorrow for the “fire accident” she read about in the Lexington paper. “We Pine Mountaineers are thinking of you and wishing you the best of luck and cooperation from all.” She mentions her classes and Lucy and Ruth who hope to visit PMSS during the holidays.

STELLA TAYLOR Correspondence II: Student Records [RESTRICTED]

1935-1935 (9th Grade), 1935-1936 (10th Grade), 1936-1937 (Junior), 1937-1938 (Senior), 1938-1939 (Post-high).

[Note: Images of the full set of student records are considered private material and are not generally publicly displayed. Their access may be provided on request, pending approval of Pine Mountain Settlement School and the archivist of the PMSS Collections. Contact the main PMSS Office for information.]

058 Grades, 1935-1936 (sewing, history, math, English, biology), and her schedule (chemistry, math, English composition).

059 December 14, 1936. Teacher’s evaluation: Ethics.

060 December 1937 through 1938. Teachers’ evaluations: Ethics, current history, kitchen, hostess and breakfast, business (shorthand and typing).

061 December 1937- May 1938. Teachers’ evaluations: Home economics, home management, social studies (community project), and sociology. December 1937.

062 May 1938. Teachers’ evaluations: Community work and mathematics.

063 1936-1939. Teachers’ evaluations: English and Pine Cone, and English composition.

064 1938-1939. Teachers’ evaluations: Community class (Infirmary housework, patients, community, classwork, records).

065 1937, 1938, 1939. Teachers’ evaluations: Geology and chemistry.

066 CROSS REFERENCE SHEET “3-29-38 Stella Taylor. See: Delia Taylor’s folder for letter to parents.”

067 November 1935 – January 1937. Teachers’ evaluations: Reports concerning Stella’s attitude and work.

068 November and December 1937. Teachers’ evaluations: Progress as part of the Pine Cone Staff and Citizenship Committee, sociology, home management, current history and ethics, and typing; Also, a report that she joined the Community Class in December 1937.

069 1936-1937 and 1937-1938. Teachers’ evaluations: Social studies, community project, current history, and ethics.

070 1937-1938. (Carbon copy of part of 064.) Teachers’ evaluations: Community class. (Infirmary housework, patients, community, classwork, records).

071 1936-1937. Teachers’ evaluations: English (literature, grammar, writing and self-expression, Pine Cone.)

072 1936-1937. Teachers’ evaluations: Mathematics, kitchen, hostess and breakfast, English (literature, grammar, writing and self-expression, Pine Cone.)

073 1936-1938. Teachers’ evaluations: Practical Arts (home economics, home management (at Old Log), business.

074 1936-1938. Practical Arts (home economics, home management, business). 1936-1937 Sciences (geology, chemistry).

075 1938-1939 Teachers’ evaluations: English composition, chemistry, community class.

076 SCHOOL RECORD for Stella Taylor. Grades for the classes she attended during first and second semester [no years] and indicating “Recit. Per Wk., Length of Recit. Credits, Text Books Used, Signature of Instructor.”

077 ATTENDANCE AND CHARACTER RECORD: INDUSTRIAL RECORD. [N.D.] Grades for Obedience, Dependability, Courtesy.

078 A form with handwritten entries in columns for Age, Educational Level, I.Q., and Educational Group (9th through 12th and post-high), Grades, Experiences, Health. Also, Stanford Achievement Test ratings, and scores for Sones Harry Achievement, Kentucky Cooperative Test, and General Scholastic Ability Test. The Remarks column contains a list of three institutions to which copies of this form were sent.