Lulu Belle Bryan
(1896-1998)
Lulu Belle Bryan was born on November 12, 1896 on a farm about one mile southeast of Menlo, Iowa. She was named after her dad's favorite cousin. She had two brothers, Charles Harold Bryan and Frank Paul Bryan, and an adopted sister, Miriam Christine Bryan.
Her parents and family moved into Stuart, Iowa so that the children could all go to high school. She graduated from Stuart High School in 1916, first in her class of 33. She went to Simpson College in Indianapolis, Iowa, graduating in 1920 with an A.B.
She taught in one-room school houses in Casey, Dexter and New Hartford, Iowa. In 1927 she began her missionary service with a teaching position in the Browning Home & Mather Academy in Camden, South Carolina. She became Principal in January, 1928 and continued in that position for about 30 years.
Some of Aunt Lulu's contributions were chronicled in the book "Browning Home and Mather Academy-A Fifty Year History" by Fances Peacock written in 1938.
"In January (1928), Miss Throckmorton was called away, but an able learder was found in Miss Lulu B. Bryan, then a member of the teaching staff. Since that time Mather Academy has climbed rapidly, especially in her scholastic standing. Every head of a department has been, since 1928, a college graduate; all high school teachers have had to meet the same requirements since 1934 when Mather became an "A" class school and a member of the Southern Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges. This was a great stride, for then only three other high schools in South Carolina had this honor."
After retiring from teaching in the late 1950's she went back to college for one year, and then held church-related positions in Calexico, California, in Durango, Mexico and in another location in Mexico.
After she "finally retired", she lived with a former student, Mrs. Estelle Mitchell, in Pasadena, California until moving in 1996 to the Brooks-Howell Home.
Lulu Belle Bryan passed away January 11, 1998 in the Brooks-Howell Home for Retired Missionaries and Deaconesses, Asheville, North Carolina. She was 101 years old. She was buried next to her parents, Martin Francis Bryan and Frances Belle (Thomas) Bryan, in the Stuart Cemetery, Stuart, Iowa.
[Bryan Family History][TREE]