Edras Lane Leamon taught school in Kingsley in 1927, which we assume must be the year the Kingsley friendship quilt was made and what brought this remarkable woman in the path of the Kingsley community. The social columns of the 1920s give us a glimpse into the life of a single woman on the homesteaded plains, dances, theme parties with prizes, and so much fun at this booming time in Powder River County's history, as shown in these clips from the Powder River County Examiner Kingsley columns:
Edras was born to Cora Carpenter and Henry Leamon in 1905 in Hannibal, Missouri. Edras' mother died when she was ten, and the following census (1920) shows Edras living at the St Louis Christian Orphans Home as a "boarder" - a distinction from the "orphans" also listed as living there, under the superintendency of Betty R. Brown. More than 100 children were living at the orphanage at the time of the census.
The final entry shown here indicates Edras Leamon was a boarder at the orphanage, and incorrectly categorizes her as a male.
Note the number of "Orphans" vs "Boarders"
In 1929 Edras married Austin Giles Norman in Miles City. By 1935 she had moved to Denver and the couple was divorced in 1938. Little is known about Edras other than the hardship she must have faced. We can only hope she found love in her second husband Charles Masten and his daughter, whom she adopted, in Denver.
