WHITNEY, Perna Miner 1861-1936

WHITNEY

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 8/27/2010 at 23:38:25

Veteran Teacher of Piano
Passed Away Sunday Morning

Miss Perna M. Whitney passed away quietly last Sunday morning, March 8, at about 9:45 o'clock. For almost two and a half years she had been a sufferer from paralysis.

She was born October 20, 1861, in Chicago. When a small child she came to Osage with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Pascal Whitney. She began her life work as a teacher of piano when but 16 years old, with frequent intervals spent at larger places to study. For several years she spent some time teaching piano and harmony in music schools in Lockport, New York and Lynchburg, Virginia.

Locally Miss Whitney was considered not only a teacher of music but of culture and appreciation. Her recitals were events of precision and finish, the drilling for which contributed materially to the pupil's education. Her teaching covered a period of nearly sixty years, most of which time was spent in Osage. A large part of the people of this vicinity who play the piano received at least a part of their training from Miss Whitney. She thus leaves her cultural impress on the community.

Her father died in 1883, and her brother, Frederick, later went out into the teaching field, leaving the mother and daughters, Misses Perna and Annette, to keep the home on north Seventh Street. Mrs. Whitney passed away in 1920, and the daughters have resided in the same home since that time.

Funeral services were conducted by the Rev. Stiles Lessly, pastor of the Congregational church, at the Champion funeral home Tuesday afternoon at 2 o'clock, with interment in the family lot in the Osage [Iowa] cemetery.

The brother, Dr. Frederick, of Greeley, Colorado, came to be present at the funeral. He and the sister, Annette, are the only surviving close relatives.

{Mitchell County Press, March 12, 1936]

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See photo of headstone on IaGenWeb/GPP