Verna Hughes Dewitt

Verna's Diary Verna Hughes Dewitt

Verna Hughes DeWitt (1904-1997) began keeping this personal diary in 1920, when she was a relatively carefree high school student in Monticello, Arkansas. She recorded her experiences as an elementary school teacher in training, a university student, a community member, a young wife and mother. (She was married to Charles Burns DeWitt in 1925, her son Hugh was born in 1930, and her daughter Neva was adopted six years later). Her entries follow her from Monticello to Fayetteville, Arkansas; to Memphis, Tennessee; to Ames, Iowa; to Salt Lake City, Utah; and finally (in notes added in 1959), to Berkeley, California. It is a remarkable record of one woman's progression through life, her intimate thoughts, her joys and struggles.