American Association for Women in Community Colleges

Salute to Strong Women
Kathy Gehrt

Mary Mescher Gehrt (my mother)
Mary grew up in Quincy during the depression. She was the first one in her family to graduate from college (Quincy College).

While pregnant with her first child, she traveled to Maryland to set up housekeeping in a trailer with her soldier husband. She was a stay-at-home mom, typist and emotional support for her husband as he worked on and completed his master’s degree.

As a young mother with two children, Mary taught 6th grade at St. Francis School in Quincy for five years. She and her family lived in Ottawa, Canada for one year where she worked as a substitute teacher.

After return to the U.S. and a move to Keokuk, Iowa, three more children arrived in Mary’s life within 25 months. She was a stay-at-home mother for her five children for a few years, then began teaching part-time. As the children grew, she began teaching full-time at Keokuk Middle School. She taught 7th grade reading for 15 years and initiated the RIF (Reading is Fundamental) program at the school. This program distributed hundreds of free books to the middle school students.

Mary retired and she and her husband took a long-anticipated trip to Europe. Within a period of 18 months, her husband died and she was diagnosed with colon cancer. Now 13 years post surgery and chemotherapy, she is a cancer survivor. In 2003, Mary suffered the death of one of her sons. She continues to do volunteer work for St. Anthony Parish and Adams County Right to Life and enjoys her children and grandson.

Lydia Teuscher Gehrt (my grandmother)
Lydia grew up on a farm in southeastern Wisconsin. She helped with chores and with the care of her five younger siblings. Sometimes she drove the team of horses that provided the power for the farm work. She also learned to roll cigars from the tobacco her father grew.

At 17, she married against the wishes of her family. ( Lydia was Protestant, her husband Catholic.) During the Depression, the family lost their home when their bank failed. Lydia, her husband, and two young children moved in with relatives temporarily. Shortly, they began building their own new house. The whole family worked mixing cement to pour the foundation and continued from there working together to complete the structure.

Lydia was a talented seamstress and made most of her and her three children’s clothes. She also embroidered, crocheted, and made lace. When her children were of school age, she began working in a bridal shop. She helped brides and their attendants chose gowns. She then performed the necessary alterations and dressed the bride on her wedding day. Many of her customers became friends and brought their daughters to her when their wedding days approached.

Lydia’s husband died when she was only 46. She continued to work at the bridal shop into her 70’s. Her son died when she was in her 80’s.

The last ten years of her life were spent in Colorado living with her younger daughter. There she enjoyed the mountain vistas and was loved by her daughter’s friends as well her children and ten grandchildren.