KELLAR, Venia M. (1880-1958)

KELLAR

Posted By: Karon King (email)
Date: 5/19/2010 at 18:52:27

VENIA M. KELLAR

Funeral Announcement: VALENTINE REPUBLICAN, Oct. 16, 1958; Valentine, Neb. Funeral services for Venia M. Kellar of Washington, D.C., will be held at the Presbyterian Church, Friday at 2 o'clock.

Miss Kellar had fallen in the bathtub in her apartment in Washington, D.C., Tuesday. Unaware that she had fractured her hip she managed to drag herself into bed and waited until the next morning to call for help. She died during surgery Monday.

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Obituary: VALENTINE REPUBLICAN, October 23, 1958; Valentine, Nebraska

VENIA M. KELLAR DIES

Miss Venia M. Kellar, founder of the annual Rural Women's Short Course of the University of Maryland died October 13th, at Doctors Hospital, Washington, D.C., at the age of 77.

Miss Kellar, who retired in March, 1954, after 34 years with the University of Maryland Extension Service, was the organizer and the developer of the popular program founded in 1923. It is held in June of each year, and now is designated as College Week for Women. It annually attracts hundreds of Maryland homemakers who take over the campus at College Park.

When she retired, Miss Kellar was assistant director of the extension service, a post she held since 1935, and head of the State Home Economics Department.

Miss Kellar, the daughter of John Francis Kellar and Matilda Jane Sayre Kellar, was born near Prole, Iowa, March 18, 1880. She grew up on a cattle ranch, taught school in Nebraska public schools, was Home Demonstration Agent in South Dakota and filed on a homestead near Crookston, Nebraska. She was a graduate of the Nebraska Wesleyan University and also attended the University of Nebraska and Columbia University where she got her Masters Degree in Home Economics.

She began extension work in Dorchester County of Maryland in 1917 when only five Maryland counties had home demonstration agents. All 23 counties and Baltimore city have them now. When she came to the university she also supervised girls 4H work.

In 1948, special tribute was awarded Miss Kellar by the rural women attending the short course, most of them members of the 364 Homemakers Clubs throughout the state. She was honored at one assembly, and a portrait of her was presented to the University by Mrs. W. Earle Gasweiler of Aberdeen, then president of the Maryland State Council of Homemakers. The honor was accorded Miss Kellar in "grateful recognition of her entire efforts and devotion to the development of a sound education program." The above account is reprinted from the EVENING STAR of Washington, D.C.

Since retirement, Miss Kellar lived in Washington, D.C. and in her home at Crookston, Nebraska, except the time she spent abroad. She has been a member of the Presbyterian Church since girlhood.

She is survived by her brother, E.M. Kellar and his wife of Crookston, Nebraska; four nephews, two nieces, seven grand-nephews and six grand-nieces.

Funeral services were conducted Oct 17th at the Presbyterian Church with Rev. James K. Irwin officiating. Interment was in Mount Hope Cemetery.

Relatives attending the funeral from out-of-town were Mr. and Mrs. Jack Wagner and Phillip, and Mr. and Mrs. Fred Smith and son of Pipestone, Minnesota; Paul C. Smith and daughter of Rock Rapids, Iowa; E.J. Anderson of Indianola, Iowa; Mrs. LaVaughn Clark of Iowa City; Mr. Thoro Manly, and Mr. and Mrs. Bernard S. Smith of Indianola, Iowa."

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Notes from Pierce Raubach: Venia Merie Kellar was born on a farm in Warren County, Iowa, near Prole, Iowa, in 1880. Her family moved to Steeleburg, Nebraska, Jefferson County, (now Steele City) where her two brothers, Enoch Monroe (1886) and John Major (1888) were born. They then moved to Havelock, Nebraska, which then was a small town northeast of Lincoln, Nebraska. It is now part of Lincoln (1981). Here is where Venia went to high school and the Nebraska Wesleyan University, graduating in 1902.

In 1905, John Francis Kellar bought a small ranch from a Mr. Cavanaugh which was three miles east of Crookston, Nebraska. He, together with his daughters, Jennie Forbes, and Carrie Backon; and sons, Enoch Monroe and John Major, homesteaded additional acres through the Homestead Act of 1862. Venia homesteaded some land, too. She owned her land until her death when she willed it to her nephew, Monroe, who lives on the ranch today.