It was Christmas Eve of 1927. Hunting was popular in Hart County, Georgia among the men, just as I am sure it is today. So a group went hunting that fateful December evening. While stalking their prey that night, one of the men pricked his finger on a briar. That is a common occurrence that most people would think very little about. However this particular prick led to the onset of a disease known as Blastomycosis. This fungal infection is very treatable today, but apparently that was in the case in 1927.

The man stricken with this infection was known to the small Georgia community, where he served as school superintendent, as Professor Knox. He was my paternal grandfather. He died June 21st, 1928 from complications associated with Blastomycosis. His wife, Elizabeth Knox, was left with three small children. Frances was ten at the time. Raymond was seven, and my father, Arthur, was two.

What does a young widow with three small children do under such circumstances in 1928? It is my understanding that she had no family of her own to seek out in such a crisis. Enter a lady known to the community of Hartwell as Miss Emma. Her name was Emma Kay. Miss Emma was the post-mistress in Hartwell. She was a single lady with a large home. Miss Emma took the young family into her home. I no nothing about the details, but I do know that my grandmother attended the University of Georgia during the years immediately following her husband’s death and completed her bachelor’s degree in Home Economics Education. During this time period they lived in Miss Emma’s home.

My grandmother thus began teaching home economics in the Hartwell school system, where her husband had once served as superintendent. During Christmas break of 1931 her brother-in-law, Sam Knox, invited her for a visit to the mountains of Kentucky. At that time, he was serving in several roles for a mission boarding school in Blackey, Kentucky called Stuart Robinson. The mountain kids that the school served were extremely poor, and of course the Great Depression was in full swing by Christmas of 1931.

My grandmother took a long train ride all the way to Blackey, Kentucky that December. She immediately fell in love with the school and the mission it was trying to accomplish. I wonder all of these years later what Sam’s motives were in inviting my grandmother out to Kentucky during that Christmas break! The rest is history. She packed up her three children and they moved to Kentucky. She assumed teaching responsibilities at Stuart Robinson School not long after her initial visit. She later became principal of the school as well.

I have admired my grandmother’s faith and tenacity for decades now. She was a strong lady. She was a Godly person. Her writings that have been preserved indicate a lady who did not let the loss of her husband at age 32 hinder her from doing great things. Her career as an educator ended up being very meaningful. She accomplished things that few women were able to in the 1930’s and 1940’s.

I often wondered what it must have been like for my father to grow up in that environment. He discussed those days only on rare occasions, and then only briefly. I tried to visualize in my mind what the campus looked like. My grandmother taught there until 1942. Stuart Robinson graduated its final class in 1957. But the campus is still intact….It is no longer a school, but good things are happening there! In October of 2008, I visited the campus where Stuart Robinson School once resided. The visit provided great insight regarding my family roots. More on that trip tomorrow…