Mary Margaret Lewis
Mary Margaret (Grantham) Lewis was born March 11, 1919 to Roy and Leola Maude Liggett Grantham at their home located in rural Gentry County MO. She attended the Grantham rural school located 2 miles from her home and then attended and graduated from Stanberry High School. Following high school she attended Northwest Missouri State College in Maryville Missouri and received a temporary teaching certificate which she used to teach in the rural schools of Gentry and Nodaway counties, Starr school being her first. A Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Northwest Missouri State College and life time teaching certification was earned in 1961. Her career resumed when she began teaching 2nd grade for the Northeast Nodaway RV school district in Parnell Missouri. A Master Degree in Education was later earned from Northwest Missouri State University. Mary Margaret retired from the Northeast Nodaway School District in 1984.
During WWII she lived in Kansas City MO where she worked in a bank. After meeting her future husband at Northwest, she married Burton Keller Lewis on May 1, 1944, in Kansas City, Kansas. She then went to Houston, Texas and San Diego, California to be with BK when he was in port before shipping out to the Pacific war theater.
Mary Margaret was a member of the Ravenwood United Methodist Church, UMW, Excelsior Club and a volunteer for the Nodaway Senior Center. Having been born and raised in what we would today consider a kinder and simpler time, she endured The Great Depression, World War II, transition of technology from horse and buggy to space travel and all the other advances that have come along. Throughout those times of great change, several qualities that remained constant and steadfast were her values, morals, and caring demeanor.
Sharon, the wife of one of her grandsons, describe her as follows. “She was a woman of strength, loving and supportive of her family in all endeavors. She was a communicator, writing many letters and cards each day. She loved pretty things and entertaining her club ladies. She was a record keeper, remembering birthdays and anniversaries. She was a woman of faith, playing the piano and teaching Sunday school up till her last Sunday. She was fearless, always up for trying something new, whether it was swimming in her 90s to learning to use a Kindle. She was a great baker of cookies her grandchildren adored. She was a teacher that touched many lives for the better. She loved steadfastly, was wholeheartedly loved…”
A portion of her legacy is continued through this scholarship by her 3 surviving children and families.
Scholarships associated with Mary Margaret Lewis