Edna McCall was born in 1912 and grew up on a farm near the village of Inavale, Nebraska, a few miles from the one-room school she later attended and subsequently taught. Inavale is near Red Cloud, Nebraska, just north of the Republican River in the Republican Valley. Edna’s family and the families of an uncle and aunt lived a short distance from the school. Edna and her eleven cousins often rode horses to school together.
Edna lived at home and rode her horse to school when she was a teacher. She helped her students unsaddle and harness their ponies. Her love of horseback riding continued in Sun City, Arizona many decades later where she continued riding well into her retirement years. Her grandchildren remember vacations in the Colorado mountains where their grandmother would engage the family in a morning of horseback riding.
Because Edna was a modest woman who seldom talked about herself, information was, in part, taken from the book Nebraska Farm Life, WWI and WWII written by her cousins, Malvern C. McCall, Pauline McCall Koon, Allan L. McCall, and Richard C. McCall.
Meeting the academic challenges of students of varying ages and abilities was only part of her job description. The unpaved dirt roads to the school were often impassable. No custodian shoveled paths in the snow to the outhouse or cleaned the school room at the end of the day. Minor building repairs, hauling coal and tending the furnace were jobs Enda accomplished.
Maintaining and monitoring the playground for morning and afternoon recess breaks was also part of a teacher’s responsibility, as was the expectation of getting to get to school in the worst of blizzards and keep it open if any children arrived.
After one year of teaching, Edna attended the University of Nebraska, where she was on the Dean’s List. After the death of her father, she joined her family in California. Edna returned to Nebraska in 1938 to marry Carleton Hutchins of Franklin, Nebraska. She was active in many community activities including teaching Sunday School, acting as a Cub Scout den mother and president of her PEO chapter.
Edna’s commitment to education encouraged her son, Steven, to graduate from the University of Nebraska and from Nebraska Law School. Her two grandchildren also graduated from college. Edna was a wonderful wife, mother and grandmother who was universally loved. It is with love and respect that her family honors Edna McCall Hutchins.
Edna lived at home and rode her horse to school when she was a teacher. She helped her students unsaddle and harness their ponies. Her love of horseback riding continued in Sun City, Arizona many decades later where she continued riding well into her retirement years. Her grandchildren remember vacations in the Colorado mountains where their grandmother would engage the family in a morning of horseback riding.
Because Edna was a modest woman who seldom talked about herself, information was, in part, taken from the book Nebraska Farm Life, WWI and WWII written by her cousins, Malvern C. McCall, Pauline McCall Koon, Allan L. McCall, and Richard C. McCall.
Meeting the academic challenges of students of varying ages and abilities was only part of her job description. The unpaved dirt roads to the school were often impassable. No custodian shoveled paths in the snow to the outhouse or cleaned the school room at the end of the day. Minor building repairs, hauling coal and tending the furnace were jobs Enda accomplished.
Maintaining and monitoring the playground for morning and afternoon recess breaks was also part of a teacher’s responsibility, as was the expectation of getting to get to school in the worst of blizzards and keep it open if any children arrived.
After one year of teaching, Edna attended the University of Nebraska, where she was on the Dean’s List. After the death of her father, she joined her family in California. Edna returned to Nebraska in 1938 to marry Carleton Hutchins of Franklin, Nebraska. She was active in many community activities including teaching Sunday School, acting as a Cub Scout den mother and president of her PEO chapter.
Edna’s commitment to education encouraged her son, Steven, to graduate from the University of Nebraska and from Nebraska Law School. Her two grandchildren also graduated from college. Edna was a wonderful wife, mother and grandmother who was universally loved. It is with love and respect that her family honors Edna McCall Hutchins.