Harriet Shepard
Mrs. Harriet Shepard dies after distinguished career
Leader & Press November 4, 1946
"One of the most distinguished women in Missouri, Mrs. Harriet Elma Ohlen Shepard, 93, widow of Dr. Edward M. Shepard of Drury College, was found dead in her bed yesterday morning at her home at 1403 Benton.
"A memorial service will be announced later, after cremation, under the direction of the Alma Lohmeyer funeral home.
"Mrs. Shepard was the organizer of the first women's club in Springfield, the Saturday Club, and one of the pioneer club women of the state, a state leader in club activities for many, many years, president of the Missouri State Federation of Women's clubs in 1909 to 1913, and state vice president of the AAUW in 1922-23.
"Of great personal charm, along with intellect and character, Mrs. Shepard quickly became a leader from the time she arrived in Springfield in 1878 to join the faculty of Drury College. Her interests were broad, her activities varied – church, college, women's clubs, civic affairs, in all of which she engaged with a winning combination of competence and social grace. Possibly her leadership in a day when women's participation in public affairs was not yet generally accepted, did more than that of any other one person to bring Springfield women into organized cultural activity and an awareness of their community responsibility.
"She came to Springfield in 1878, one of the early graduates of Vassar College – a girl of high spirit, unusual cultivation, and earnest zeal – and one of the first things she did was to organize the city's first woman's club that first winter, in 1879. Springfield was still a frontier town in 1878, and for even the leading women of the community to attend club meetings was a daring thing – drawing the ridicule when not the criticism of their husbands. But the pretty, witty, and energetic Miss Ohlen at Drury made it an adventure worth while, and carried on her crusade for feminine culture to great success for more than 60 years.
"She was one of the organizers and a charter member of the American Association of University Women in Springfield, and for a time its president, she was a member of the Mary E. Wilson Home board; she was one of the two first women to be appointed to the Public Library board, in 1912, and continued as a valuable member of the board for 27 years, until 1939, when her daughter, Miss Isabel Shepard, was appointed to succeed her. She was a member of the Congregational Church.
"During the First World War, Mrs. Shepard was a leader in women's war activities – vice-chairman of the Missouri State committee of the Council of National Defense, and chairman of the Red Cross nursing service in Greene County. Even during World War II she knitted faithfully and industriously, and turned out an impressive quantity of knitted articles for the Red Cross.
"On June 28, 1881, she married Dr. Edward M. Shepard, a member of the Drury faculty and a distinguished Missouri scientist and historian, and both were lifelong leaders in Drury and community affairs. Doctor Shepard died in 1934.
"They had two children. Their son Edward Shepard, died shortly after the first World War, in which he was in the U. S. Army in France. Their daughter, Miss Isabel Shepard, former teacher, lives in the family home, and she and Edward Shepard's widow, Mrs. Jean L. Shepard of New York City, are Mrs. Shepard's only immediate survivors.
"Mrs. Shepard was born January 16, 1853, at Fort Hunter, N. Y., of old New York stock; was graduated from Vassar College in 1874, and for three years was professor of natural science at Milwaukee College before coming to Drury as head of the women's department."
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