Nora Estelle Alcorn Owens
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One of McCreary County’s most prominent citizens was a brilliant student, beloved mother, renowned educator, first elected superintendent of McCreary County Schools, and a founding member of McCreary County. Nora Estelle Alcorn was born December 30, 1884, in Parkers Lake, KY and died September 18, 1979, at the age of ninety four. It is well known that the important part of one’s life happens in the dash between birth and death. Nora’s life was one of astounding accomplishments and profound loss.
Nora’s parents were Martha Jane Dykes (1851-1937) and John Harvey Alcorn (1945-1917). While in her thirties Nora Estelle Alcorn married Barnett H. (Barney) Owens (1889-1971) and they were the parents of one son, Wilbur Allen Owens (1925-1941).
Wilbur, age 15, was a sophomore at Stearns High School and active in numerous school activities including basketball. On Saturday, January 25, 1941, Wilbur and four friends, Bonnie Shelton, Jarvis Bell, Estill Holloway, and Clifford Anderson were struck by a truck while walking home from a show in Stearns in front of Norman Hickman’s Filling Station between Stearns and Whitley City. Bonnie Shelton suffered severe injuries and was taken to the hospital in Boyle County. Estill Holloway and Clifford Anderson were not injured. Wilbur died at the scene of the accident. He is buried in the Greenwood Cemetery in Greenwood, KY alongside his loving parents.
In 1913, six years before the 19th amendment was passed granting women the right to vote, Nora Alcorn was elected as the first school superintendent of McCreary County Schools. She succeeded W. S. Gilreath who had been appointed as superintendent by Governor James B. McCreary in 1912. At the age of twenty-eight she worked diligently to improve all aspects of McCreary’s educational system. She held the office of superintendent from 1914-1917.
In his 1979 book McCreary Conquest, L. E. Perry shared this about Miss Alcorn. “No one in the tri-county area of Wayne, Pulaski, and Whitley counties possessed the educational background of this young woman at the time of her election. She held the office from 1914-1917, a period in which she initiated ideas into a despairing county school system. She instilled hope in students and parents alike. It was through her inspiration that many young people were encouraged to seek higher education.
No other woman in McCreary County history is more worthy of the distinction of being recognized as the “grand lady of education” than Nora Alcorn. By becoming the first elected county school superintendent and the first woman ever to hold that office, her place in McCreary County history was assured. Through her friendship with Coral Wilson Stewart, she was able to start a Moonlight School program designed to teach illiterate adults to read and write.”
After attending school in Greenwood, she earned high school credits at the University of Kentucky. Her collegiate career included Cumberland College; Eastern Kentucky Normal School; Peabody College in Nashville, TN; and Miami University in Ohio. Miss Alcorn traveled to schools in McCreary County by horseback wearing a riding habit made by her sister. At its peak the Moonlight School had over 500 students attending night classes. The classes were taught by local teachers who instructed younger students during the day and adults at night. Nora Alcorn Owens was a true leader and serves as an inspiration to all of us as we work for the betterment of our community.
For comments or information please email Debbie Kidd-Trammell at dtrammell@historicstearns.org.
Debbie – Thanks SO much for publishing the article on our Great Aunt Nora Alcorn Owens in the McCreary County Voice this week. My mother, Mary Alcorn Trammell, was the oldest girl of 8 children and she spent a great deal of time with Aunt Nora. I am so enjoying the ‘Glimpses from the Past’ articles that are filling in rich information about my paternal lines in Marsh Creek and early Pine Knot. I am hoping to find maps or plats on a future Ky visit to locate homesteads/farms of my Meadors, Stephens, Gilreath, Murphy families in relation to the only one I know – Richard & Martha Stephens Trammell homestead land in Marsh Creek. Hearing of new roads impacting some cemetery access is sad. Please continue with your wonderful histories of families in McCreary County.