Heacock

HEACOCK GRAVES WOODS

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/24/2010 at 21:31:26

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Heacock Family
By E V Heacock

E V ‘Vern’ Heacock was born the son of Minnie Graves and James S Heacock, Sr, on May 28, 1903, in the village of Quorn, which was located one mile west of the present site of Kingsley, Iowa. His father was one of the three brothers who established the mill on the West Fork River in 1882. A replica of this old mill is the logo for the Kingsley Centennial of June 1984.

Vern was the fourth child in a family of five children. Three of the five, May M (Wright), Edwin G, and Forest E, are deceased. The fifth, James S Heacock, Jr, now resides in Carefree, Arizona. All of these, with the exception of Edwin G, who died in infancy, grew up in the ‘Miller’s Residence’ in Quorn and attended the public schools in Kingsley, Iowa.

After graduation from high school in May 1921, E V attended Morningside College. Here he prepared himself for the teaching profession and also majored in mathematics and minored in science. While attending Morningside, he met the girl who was to become his wife and life-long partner in the field of education, Edna M Woods, of Sloan, Iowa.

Edna Woods was born in Sloan, Iowa, on July 8, 1903, the daughter of Cecelia Olson and Flaviel A Woods. She was second in a family of nine children: Marie E (Schweizer), Faye C (Rasmussen), Dorothy T (Trent), Warren W, John A, Everett C, and Merle A. Of these nine, seven are still living, Marie Marian and Merle in Sloan; Faye in Des Moines, Iowa; Edna in Kingsley; and John and Dorothy in Fresno, California. Warren W died in 1922 at the age of nine years; Everett C died in 1978. All of these attended and graduated from the Sloan public Schools, Edna in 1921.

After graduation from college, both Edna and Verna found teaching positions, Edna in Meridan, Iowa, and Vern in Danbury, Iowa. At the end of the first year, Edna was offered the third and fourth grades assignment at Danbury and on August 18, 1926, they were married at Grace Methodist Church in Sioux City, Iowa. They set up housekeeping in Danbury and taught together the first year, 1926-27.

In the spring of 1927, Vern was promoted to the Superintendency, so it was decided that Edna should stop teaching an became a ‘full time’ housewife. On May 27, 1929, their son, James F Heacock, was born in the hospital in Battle Creek, Iowa. After a total of five years in the Danbury schools, Vern decided to accept an offer to head the Pierson Consolidated Schools.

This was a time of depression, or so-called ‘Hard Times’, but to the Heacock family, it was a time of happiness and contentment in the profession they had chosen and among people they had learned to respect and cherish. On February 6, 1933, their daughter, Patricia Marian, was born to complete the family of four.

In 1941, World War II broke out and young men enlisted and coaches were non-existent and teachers were few. As a result, E V had to serve as coach and Edna re-entered the teaching profession once more as a high school classroom instructor. In May of 1947, son, James F, graduated from the Pierson High School and following his parents’ footsteps, entered Morningside College.

One year later, the family moved to Holly Springs and E V and Edna continued in their profession as superintendent and classroom teacher, respectively. Their daughter, Patricia Marian, graduated from the Holly Springs Consolidated High School in May 1950.

After a few years, the State Department of Public Instruction insisted that all small schools be re-organized and grouped into larger units, regardless of the quality of curriculum of the proficiency of the graduates. In compliance with these demands, the Hornick and Holly Springs Community School District. This was an efficient reorganization, effective educationally as well as being financially practical. However, it was still too small to suit the State Department and further combining was recommended.

After six years of existence, Holly Springs-Hornick, along with Salix, Sloan and Smithland, combined to form the present Westwood Community School District. This was with the belief that with a larger enrollment, more subjects could be offered in the curriculum, better extra-curricular groups could be had and more efficient uses of the staff and its talents achieved. In this new district, E V served as Superintendent of Schools and Edna continued as mathematics and Latin teacher.

In 1966, after five years, they decided to retire or at least slow the pace. For E V, it had been forty-one years and for Edna twenty-eight years in education. Kingsley-Pierson Community School learned of this decision and suggested the two move into their residence in Kingsley and that E V take over the administration of the Junior High School at Pierson and Edna teach mathematics in the High School at Kingsley. This was done, but after three years, an illness forced Edna to retire. E V served one more year as Principal and announced his retirement. However, the school was unable to secure a junior high shop teacher, so E V taught those classes part-time for the next three years.

Sadly, during the last year, Superintendent Delmar Bainbridge died suddenly, so E V finished the year as Superintendent of the Kingsley-Pierson Schools. It seemed that with the close of the year, retirement would be complete. However, it was not to be. Plymouth County was in need of a superintendent, so E V served the last two years of his fifty years in education as Plymouth County Superintendent of Schools.

The Heacocks now live in their home at 217 East Second Street in Kingsley, Iowa. Seemingly quite appropriately, their home is called ‘The After Math’.