Francis W Parker School - Record Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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ff 1' ers:-gw ' ' PARKER RECORD MADAME STOESSER Emma Aline Westerman Cougnard was born june twenty-second, 1867, in Lyons, France. Her father was a well known judge in Lyons. At the beginning of the Franco- Prussian war of 1870, her father moved the family to Geneva, Switzerland, for safety. He Went back and forth from Geneva to Lyons, all during the war. The family liked Geneva so much that they decided to make it their home. So they settled there. Emma Cougnard's mother died when she was still a young girl. She was brought up by her fatherls sister, who was well known in educational and literary circles. Emma Cougnard and her only brother had their early traini-ng in Geneva. Then she Went to school in Nottingham, England, then she worked at Cambridge, and then she worked with a relative, Gaston Paris, in Paris, France, and studied at the Sorbonne. While quite young she married Count Frederick Von Stoesser, who also lived in Geneva, Switzerland. He was a dashing young man in the diplomatic circles, and Madame Stoesser's life as a bride was most interesting because she entertained most unusual and distinguished people. She became a widow in 1898 and in 1900 decided to come to this country with her only child, a little girl who was then crippled. Her husband had lost almost all her money. It must have taken quite a deal of courage for an attractive young widow to come to a strange country to earn her living, a thing she had never done before. What money she had left she had sent to her brother to invest in Galveston, Texas, which was a booming city. She sailed from Bremen for Galveston the day the Galveston flood occurred, and everything she and her brother had had was lost. The ship she came on took thirty-three days to make the crossing. Her Welcome to America was not at all a cheerful one. All she saw, at first, was waste and desolation. The only thing she was equipped to do was to teach and she did not know how to go about getting a position. She knew no one in Galveston and there was nothing to do there. She remembered Mrs. Loring in Chicago whom she had met in Geneva. She decided to take the last money she had and try to find Mrs. Loring who she thought could tell her where she could find work. She found Mrs. Loring, who remembered her well and was delighted to have her in her school. Madame Stoesser had the gift of teaching. She loved it, and the children all loved her. She taught at the Loring School for over ten years. When a vacancy occurred on the staff of the Francis Parker School, Mrs. Loring, who was most u-nselfish, proposed Madame Stoesser's name to Miss Cooke. She felt that Madame Stoesser could do more there than at her small school. Madame Stoesser did not want to leave Mrs. Loring, but she insisted on Madame Stoesser's bettering her position. During the years Madame Stoesser taught she wrote several plays and stories which will be published soon. Until her last day she loved teaching and loved her children. Nothing was too much to do for them. The morning she went, she spoke of the children in this year's graduating class. She wanted to go back for them. Madame Stoesser understood and loved youth. She was always ready and anxious to take part in all school activities. Her spirit was always to help others. She passed on just as she wanted to, on last August fourth, 1929, on a sunny day, in Onekema, Michigan, where she is buried. She left behind many loving friends. All who knew her will long remember her genial and happy smile. Page Thirteen i 1 3 Y 1 .41 'f-1 1930

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PARKER RECORD 5 1ln dbemoriam 5 MADAME E. COUGNARD STOESSER JUNE 22, 1867 AUGUST 4, 1929 ,g tj 1930 , LL J ju , , Z '1 L A A 1 P w 'V Ll

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dl V PARKER RECORD FLORA J. COOKE Principal RAYMOND W. OSBORNE Assistant Principal JESSIE FOSTER BARNES Head Teacher of French WALTER R. BARROW5 Head of Tenth Grade Teacher of High School Mathematics ALBERT O. BERGLUND Teacher of Manual Training MARION FRANCES BROWN Teacher of Elementary Manual Training NEALE S. CARLEY Head of Twelfth Grade and of Latin Department PEARL BACKUS CARLEY Third Grade MARIE CLAUSSENIUS Associate in Art Department ISABEL W. CLAYTON Librarian IRENE 'L CLEAVES Eighth Grade KATHERINE CLEMENTS Head of Art Department HAZEL M. CORNELL Seventh Grade LUELLA CORNISH Associate in Music Department Head of Music' in First Six Grades Page Fourteen Q- Y is 3 ' 1 A' s-- 1930