Wanda Molsberry Bates

I was born in Clarksville, Iowa, a small town, on January 11, 1915. I was the youngest of six children with two brothers and three sisters. Living with older siblings, I learned to read and write at an early age and had a hard time waiting to start to school at age 5. I have always loved to read, finding libraries to be fascinating places for long visits. In early years I wrote some little plays which kids in the neighborhood performed. However, it was after retirement that I became seriously interested in writing.

I graduated from Clarksville high school and from Iowa State University at Ames, IA. My first teaching job was in a rural consolidated school near Spirit Lake, IA, where I lived in a teacherage, a rooming house for teachers, which sat near the schoolhouse. I taught there for 3 years, for one year in the town of Spirit Lake, IA, and for three years at Jefferson, IA, before marrying my college beau, Herbert Bates, in l942. During the years of our marriage we lived in Cleveland, OH, Lincoln, NE, and Manhattan, KS, where I still live. Herbert was a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the university in each of those cities. I worked as a secretary in the Department of Biochemistry at Kansas State University in Manhattan for l8 years. Leukemia claimed Herbert in 1994. Some time after his death I wrote the piece, "OK2B1."

I became seriously interested in writing after taking creative writing classes at Kansas State and becoming a member of Kansas Authors Club. Raising a son and a daughter, helping peripherally with bringing up four grandchildren, and marveling at the personality of a 2-l/2-year old great-granddaughter who thinks she is old enough to drive a car, have provided ample scope for writing! It is an interesting hobby which I am happy to be able to pursue at age 91, a circumstance which limits other activities.

Story ID:	495
Written by:	OurEcho Admin (bio, link, contact, other stories)
Story type:	In The Spotlight
Location:	Manhattan Kansas USA
Year:	2006
Person:	Wanda Molsberry Bates