LEWERS, Eva Zerline

LEWERS, GREENWOOD, BRADSHAW HOWAT, LANGSTON

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 1/23/2016 at 13:38:11

Biography ~ EVA ZERLINE LEWERS
December 31, 1895 ~ November 20, 1956

Eva Zerline Lewers, Superintendent of the Indian Boarding School at Eufaula, Oklahoma, for over twenty-one years, died November 20, 1956. Miss Lewers, the daughter of Charles Alexander and Jeanette Greenwood Lewers, was born December 31, 1895 at Schofield, Missouri. She was survived by her mother, who has since expired, by two brothers, James Greenwood and Christopher Hamilton Lewers, and by two sisters, Mrs. Harold Bradshaw Howat and Mrs. William Carroll Langston.

Interment was in the family burying lot in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, with the Reverend Sherman Kirkpatrick, Minister of the First Christian Church of Eufaula and the Reverend Frank Belvin of Okmulgee, Oklahoma, officiating.

Miss Lewers was a descendant from a long line of colonial ancestry dating back in America to the First Families of Virginia. She was a charter member of the Pennsylvania Chapter Colonial Daughters of the Seventeenth Century, and life member of the Oklahoma Historical Society.

Miss Lewers worked in the United States Department of the Interior, Department of Indian Affairs, for more than thirty-six years. She served among the Sioux Tribes of South Dakota and as Superintendent at the Rosebud Reservation, at Carter Seminary in Ardmore, aa well as at Eufaula.

Among the educators with whom Miss Lewers was associated she was known for her brilliance, her high scholastic standards and attainments, as well aa for her unusual devotion to duty. Elementary and high school work were completed at Crane, Missouri, where she graduated as valedictorian. Her Bachelor of Science degree was earned at Missouri State College at Warrensburg where she again graduated with honors. She received the Master of Science degree at Iowa State College at Ames, Iowa. After teaching in high school at Lamoni, Iowa, where her agriculture classes received first honors in competition at Iowa State College, and after teaching at Graceland College, Lamoni, Iowa [1924-1929], she taught at Iowa State College. She later had graduate work at ,Peabody College, Nashville, Tennessee, and at Columbia University in New York, completing all residential reqnirements for her doctorate degree. Citations and Medals of Merit for outstanding professional work were awarded to her in 1956 and 1958 by the United States Department of the Interior.

Scholastic organizations recognized her high attainments. She was a member of Lambda Delta Sigma, an honorary scholastic fraternity; Sigma Delta, honorary society of agriculture; Kappa Delta Pi, honorary fraternity of education; and Phi Gamma Mu, honorary fraternity of social sciences.

Not only for her educational and professional attainments was Miss Lewers admired by her associates but her civic work was recognized as attested by ten Presidential Citations for outstanding service to the American Red Cross. The Indians particularly appreciated her work in their behalf as was stated by Reverend Frank Belvin when he said: "Our Indians are the better for her having passed this way".

The First Christian Church of Eufaula has established the Eva Lewers Memorial Flower Fund perpetual fund. Annually, on the Sunday nearest Thanksgiving, flowers are placed in the church in her memory. This church has also dedicated its new Youth Center to her memory. This spacious and beautiful addition to the church is officially called The Eva Lewers Youth Center and Fellowship Hall. The large bronze tablet, unveiled when the room was dedicated, bears the following inscription:

This Youth Center and Fellowship Hall
is dedicated in loving memory of
MISS EVA LEWERS
Superintendent of Eufaula Indian Boarding
School for over twenty-one years, prominent
educator, brilliant student, and an outstanding
friend of young people everywhere.
May 4,1958

- By Aileen Langston
York, Pennsylvania

SOURCES:

"The Chronicles of Oklahoma." Pp. 112-13. Oklahoma Historical Society. 1958.

Goehner, David. "The Graceland College Book of Knowledge: From A To Z." Pp. 4-22. Herald House. Independence MO. 1997.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, January of 2016