Notes for ARDITH LILLIAN EMMONS WILLIAMS:

Daughter of Wilson Thomas and Amy Lillian (Penrose) Emmons.
Born: January 11, 1904 in What Cheer, Keokuk County, Iowa.
Died: May 4, 1988 in Greensboro, North Carolina.
1915 Census: Keokuk County, Iowa.
April 15, 1930 Census: Prairie Township, Keokuk County, Iowa.
Residence:
1948 - Rochester, Minnesota.
Last Residence: Greensboro, Guilford, North Carolina.
Education: Graduated Scattergood Friends School, West Branch, Iowa.
1933 - Masters Degree Mills College in California.
Occupation:
1948 - charge of the the four year old children at the Rochester Child Health Institute, sponsored jointly by the Mayo Clinic and University of Minnesota, in cooperation with local health and welfare agencies.
Married: John Pearson (Embree) Williams October 1, 1974 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The Olney Current for Eleventh Month, 1942, reported "Ardith Emmons is Director of the Preschool at Haverford Friend School, Haverford, Pa., where she has been teaching for the past six years. Her out of school interests include housekeeping, which she shares with a friend in a small farm cottage at Gladwyne, Pa.; gardening; monthly camping excursions witha group which includes several 'Newcomers'; to this country; a weekly Peace Study Group; and participation in the life of a small country meeting."

In the Seventh Month, 1948, issue we find: "Ardith L. Emmons is spending the summer in Iowa, but in Ninth Month she plans to move to Rochester, Minnesota. There she will be in charge of the the four year old children at the Rochester Child Health Institute, sponsored jointly by the Mayo Clinic and University of Minnesota, in cooperation with local health and welfare agencies."

The fourth Month 1954 issue states: "Ardith L. Emmons is now on the teaching staff at Iowa State Teachers College, Cedar Falls, Ia., where she is Kindergarten Supervisor in one of the off-campus teacher-training centers. She finds the work very interesting and stimulating. She lives at 524 Seerly Blvd."

Obituary:
Ardith Lillian Emmons, daughter of Amy Penrose Emmons and Wilson T Emmons was born January 11, 1904, at Emro, the family home at What Cheer, Iowa. She attended Coal Creek Friends' School and then Scattergood School unitl 1921. After graduation, she taught one year at the Coal Creek Friends' School. She attended William Penn College off and on for ten years and graduated in the same class with her sister Mary and brother Chester. Ardith taught for one year at Sugar Grove in Indiana in 1928-29.

After she had graduated from William Penn College, she did graduate study work at Bryn Mawr in 1932. While there, she became acquainted with Howard and Anna Brinton. They persuaded her to accompany them to California and she helped in their home and did graduate study work at Mills College where she received her Masters Degree in 1933.

In the summer of 1933, she went home to Emro to care for her invalid mother and to help with Irving and Mary Smith's first child, Carolyn. In 1934, she taught the elementary grades in the What Cheer Public School and that summer she went abroad with the Young Friends. In 1935, she worked at the children's home in Davenport, In the fall of 1936, she went back to Pendle Hill to help the Brintons.

Ardith then taught for several years at Haverford Friends School and there met and shared a home with Leonore Goodenough. She returned to the Midwest in the late 1940's and taught in a preschool at Rochester, Minnesota. From there she went to Iowa State Teachers College and received an assistant professorship there before finishing in 1961. She worked in the Early Childhood Development Department and supervised the student teachers.>

In 1961, she returned to care for her father and became seriously ill with cancer, followed by surgery. In 1962 - 1964, she served as secretary and hostess at Scattergood School, West Branch. She then worked for the Swarthmore Peace Collection until retirement in 1970. She was married to John P. Williams of Whittier, Iowa, at Emro on October 19, 1974. They spent summers in Whittier and winters in Florida, until establishing their residency at Friends Homes, 925 New Garden Road, Greensboro, North Carolina. Ardith died at Friends Homes on Wednesday, May 4, after a long illness.

Mrs. Williams was a member of Friendship Friends Meeting at Greensboro. She is survived by her husband, John; one sister, Mary, of Greensboro; one brother, Alton, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; nieces and nephews; stepsons and stepdaughters: Robert Williams of Springville; Arthur Williams of Cedar Rapids; Howard Williams of Greensboro; Virginia Lemmerman of Sioux City; Margaret Stevens of Bartlesville, Oklahoma; and twelve [step] grandchildren.