RUBY LANIER Staff

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: Biography – Staff/Personnel
Ruby Lanier, Staff

RUBY LANIER – Office Secretary, Bookkeeper, 1947-1962 (1963?)


TAGS: Ruby Lanier,bookkeeper,secretary,weaver,arts enthusiast,vegetable-dyed yarns,crafts,Helen Viner Stone


A distant relative of the famous Southern poet and author, Sidney Lanier, Ruby Lanier came to Pine Mountain as the bookkeeper in 1947. Though her stay was not continuous, she remained as an intermittent employee until approximately 1962. While she worked as a bookkeeper she also assumed additional responsibilities such as assisting with the publications of the School (see especially the 1949 SUPPLEMENT of the PINE CONE) and also secretarial duties as required.

She was born in Athens, Georgia in 1897, the daughter of Charles Algernon Lanier (1868-1907) and Stella Fleetwood (Wilson) Lanier (1868-1899). She was one of nine children.

Ruby Lanier continued her correspondence and contact with Pine Mountain and many former staff until her death in 1978.

She lived for a time in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but finally retired in North Carolina. A long-time weaver and admirer of the arts, Ruby Lanier retired to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she continued her craft enterprises. Particularly, she continued her interest in vegetable-dyed yarns and helped to mount an exhibit in the small museum in HIllsborough, NC. The exhibit included examples of weaving as well as explanations of the dyes used to create the specific colors found in the weavings. Lanier obviously derived much of her information from the small booklet produced by Helen Viner Stone, who, on departure from Pine Mountain established a small workshop for natural-dyed yarns in Tryon, NC. The booklet, dedicated to Katherine Pettit, was the rare publication entitled, “The Katherine Pettit Dye Book.

Per a 2010 letter from Ruby Yocum Thatcher‘s son, Alan Thatcher: “A woman named Ruby Lanier who was, I think, staff at Pine Mountain, was my mother’s mentor at Pine Mountain and was later my godmother.”

She was buried in the graveyard of the Chapel of the Cross Episcopal Church in Chapel Hill, NC.


See Also: RUBY LANIER CORRESPONDENCE


Title

Ruby Lanier

Alt. Title

Identifier

RUBY LANIER

Creator

Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY

Alt. Creator

Ann Angel Eberhardt ; Helen Hayes Wykle ;

Subject Keyword

Ruby Lanier ; Pine Mountain Settlement School ; bookkeeper ; secretary ; weaver ; arts enthusiast ; vegetable-dyed yarns ; crafts ; Helen Viner Stone ;

Subject LCSH

Lanier, Ruby, — 1897-1978.
Pine Mountain Settlement School (Pine Mountain, Ky.) — History.
Harlan County (Ky.) — History.
Education — Kentucky — Harlan County.
Rural schools — Kentucky — History.
Schools — Appalachian Region, Southern.

Date digital

2013-11-18 hw

Publisher

Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY

Contributor

n/a

Type

Collections ; text ; image ;

Format

Original and copies of documents and correspondence in file folders in filing cabinet

Source

Series 09: Biography – Staff/Personnel

Language

English

Relation

Is related to: Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections, Series 09: Staff/Personnel

Coverage Temporal

1897-1978

Coverage Spatial

Pine Mountain, KY ; Harlan County, KY ; Athens, GA ; Chattanooga, TN ; Chapel Hill, NC ; Hillsborough, NC ; Tryon, NC ; 

Rights

Any display, publication, or public use must credit the Pine Mountain Settlement School. Copyright retained by the creators of certain items in the collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Donor

n/a

Description

Core documents, correspondence, writings, and administrative papers of Ruby Lanier; clippings, photographs, books by or about Ruby Lanier ;

Acquisition

n/d

Citation

“[Identification of Item],” [Collection Name] [Series Number, if applicable]. Pine Mountain Settlement School Institutional Papers. Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY.

Processed By

Helen Hayes Wykle ; Ann Angel Eberhardt ;

Last Updated

2013-11-18 hhw ; 2015-09-09 aae ; 2016-04-23 hhw; 2020-08-22 aae ;

Bibliography

Viner, Wilmer S, H E. S. Viner, and Katherine Pettit. The Katherine Pettit Book of Vegetable Dyes. Saluda, N.C: Excelsior Printers, 1946. Print.

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