Caroline McBride
Caroline McBride
Springfield Leader & Press, 24 March 1947, page 11
"Funeral services for Mrs. Caroline Gertrude McBride, 75, pioneer in the organization of the Parent-Teachers association work here, and the first woman member of the city’s board of education, who died Sunday morning, will be held at 1:30 o’clock tomorrow afternoon at St. John’s Episcopal Church.
"Canon Everett J. Downes, rector of the church will officiate at the service, and burial will be at Greenfield, under the direction of the Alma Lohmeyer funeral home.
"Born at Windsor, January 1, 1872, Mrs. McBride graduated from Stephens College in Columbia in 1891. Later she took graduate work at the University of Missouri and at Chicago University.
"When her son, Benton, entered Boyd school here, she helped found a mothers club, which soon became the first PTA to be organized in the city and one of the first in Missouri.
"Mrs. McBride’s work in PTA gained her state prominence in the movement and she served as president of the state organization from 1914 to 1916.
"In 1921, she was elected to the Springfield board of education and was its president in 1923 and 1924. She was an active member of the board at the time the junior high school system was organized here.
"In November 1921, in recognition of her long years of work for the organization, PTA started the Gertrude McBride scholarship fund at SHS [Springfield High School].
"Mrs. McBride has been active in the work of St. John’s Episcopal Church, and was chairman of the Central Council of Social Service Agencies for 23 years. She also helped to found several of the parish’s women’s organizations.
"A movement is already underway by friends in the church to found a memorial fund for building up the Sunday school at St. John’s. The family has requested that no flowers be sent, but that the money which would be spent on flowers be turned over to Mrs. Larry Blanchette, in charge of the memorial fund.
"Mrs. McBride was the widow of D. J. Benton McBride [Jesse Benton McBride], a dentist in Springfield for many years. Survivors include her son, Benton, and a daughter, Mrs. Eleanor Fuson, both of Springfield; a brother, Courtney McKinley, Clinton, and a sister, Mrs. Annie Peaslee, Long Beach, Cal.
"Pallbearers will be Fletcher Ollis, Richard Irvin, Tom Coppage, Bruce James, Kirby Patterson and Bill Jennings."
The portrait of Caroline McBride accompanied her obituary. The photograph at left is the Springfield Board of Education, from the 1924 Resume yearbook. Mrs. McBride is seated at the far right. Both images can be enlarged by clicking them.
McBride Elementary school is named for her.
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