Deborah J. “Debbie” Conner of Piedmont and Katherine (White) Golden of rural Greenville, both native-born Wayne Countians, are among the 12 Wayne County Hall of Honor inductees for 2022, as is country physician Dr. O.A. Myers.
In January 2020, the Wayne County Historical Society officers and board of directors voted unanimously to establish a Wayne County Hall of Honor. The idea of the Hall of Honor is to be an institution devoted to recognizing and honoring noteworthy individuals for their outstanding contributions to Wayne County, Missouri, according to a press release from the historical society.
On April 1, the Wayne County Historical Society mailed their 230 members ballots containing the names and biographies of 30 nominees for the Hall of Honor. The nominees were a group of diversified individuals broken down into six time periods and covering 270 years of history, the group reported.
The categories included, Pioneer (1800-1865), Reconstruction (1866-1900), Progression (1901-1940), Golden Age (1941-1970), Modern (1971-2020) and Living.
Seven nominees were elected to the Hall of Honor from this process.
The other five inductees were selected by the Hall of Honor nomination committee and approved by the Wayne County Historical Society officers and Board of Directors.
The latter five are being inducted through the following avenues: education, the arts, historical preservation, renowned residency, and general community service.
“The 12 members of the 2022 class of inductees are to be celebrated by the Wayne County Historical Society along with the general public,” historical society officials said.
A formal induction of the 12 will take place at a future date, planned for the upcoming summer months. Details for this ceremony are being planned by the Wayne County Historical Society officers, board of directors and Hall of Honor committee.
The 2022 inductees are, in alphabetical order;
• Philip Bollinger Sr. (1783-1857)
Philip Bollinger was part of a wagon train of families that reached the Mississippi River at Perryville on Dec. 31, 1799.
He settled with his parents on the Whitewater River in Cape Girardeau County, where he married Charity Whitener in 1806. The couple chose to move west, settling on the St. Francis River at what would eventually become known as Greenville.
Beginning in 1807, Bollinger was appointed as the Grand Juror for the St. Francois Township of Cape Girardeau County, which would eventually become Wayne County. He served as an early justice of the peace and was among the tax paying settlers at the organization of Wayne County on Dec. 11, 1818.
He was appointed the first road commissioner for Wayne County and served throughout the next three decades.
He was instrumental in the development of the Internal Improvement Road Fund, that helped secure passage for postal routes, stagecoaches, and trade throughout the early history of Wayne County.
In 1840, he served as representative from Wayne County on the New Madrid to Greenville Road commission, connecting the Bootheel with the Ozarks with better travels and trade. Due to his good management of the road funds, historic commission members said, the Wayne County Commission was allowed by Missouri State Legislation to use the surplus to build the first Wayne County brick courthouse in 1849. Bollinger operated the local “Bollinger Mill” on the St. Francis River near Greenville.
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• Edith C. Chronister (1916-1993)
Edith C. (Daugherty) Chronister was a talented painter and became the premier local artist in Wayne County during the 20th century. Her unique talent captured and preserved many homes, barns, churches and scenery throughout Wayne County, that in modern times find some of the structures no longer exist.
She preserved local history through brush and paint and today it remains unequaled, unmatched and cherished. Among one of her most requested paintings was the historic log Mt. Pisgah General Baptist Church near Silva, with countless copies scattered throughout the United States.
She was the instrumental force in coordinating with the Piedmont Area Chamber of Commerce to include a local arts and crafts exhibit at the conception of the Ozark Heritage Festival in Piedmont.
At this writing, examples of her art prominently hang in the Wayne County Historical Society’s Luna Museum at Piedmont, the Historic Greenville Museum and Community at Greenville, and the Ruegg Funeral Homes throughout Wayne County.
• Deborah J. “Debbie” Conner
Deborah J. “Debbie” Conner, a native of Piedmont, has been described as a “pioneer female broadcaster.” She graduated from Clearwater High School and her career in radio started in 1966 at KPWB in Piedmont. In the early days, she worked with Jimmy Haggett, Gaylon Watson and Joe Bumpus, writing and recording commercials. .
By 1977, she was on WMPS in Memphis, Tennessee, running the first country music show in the history of the station.
Later, at WLW, she did a nationwide talk show and was the first woman to do the full air shift. In 1980, she was featured on Red’s Radio Scrapbook of Red’s Radio Network, becoming the first woman associated with that particular network, which at the time was the largest radio network in the world.
Later in her career she co-hosted the syndicated weekly country countdown, the “Country Report Countdown” and broke ground when she became the first and only woman on-air in the early life of Sirius Satellite Roadhouse.
At this writing, she is the owner of Steelradio.com, the only radio station dedicated to all genres of music that highlight the steel guitar. In 2022, Conner was inducted into the Country Radio Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee.
• Joseph M. “Joe” English (1910-1993)
Joseph M. “Joe” English was a 10-year teaching veteran when he found his way to Piedmont High School in 1947. Once English arrived in Piedmont, band was introduced to the school curriculum for the first time.
On May 30, 1949, the first appearance of the Piedmont High School marching band was introduced at the dedication of Clearwater Lake. For the next 26 years, English dedicated himself to the music department of Piedmont High School, becoming one of the most beloved educators in the annuals of 20th century Wayne County.
As bandmaster and choral director, he had built a music department of well over 100 students at his retirement.
Upon his retirement in 1975, the Clearwater School Yearbook was dedicated to the “Music Man”, Mr. Joe English.
In 2013, over 20 years after his death, former students marched in his memory at the Ozark Heritage Festival parade, a testimony of their respect toward the beloved educator and mentor.
• Katherine Golden
Katherine (White) Golden was graduated in 1955 from Greenville schools. Excelling in sports, including basketball, volleyball, softball and track, she was scouted by the All-American Red Heads Basketball team and was given a contact to play professionally in August 1955. But becoming a teacher being her passion and first love, she continued her education and thereafter pursued a 40-plus year career in education.
Her teaching career began in local one room schoolhouses in Wayne County.
When her last rural district was consolidated with Greenville she moved as well, securing a position as sixth grade teacher, where she stayed for 31 years.
In 1996, she was voted “Greenville Teacher of the Year” by her peers, retiring the next school year. Since her retirement from public schools, she has taught at the Mingo Job Corps at Puxico and the Charleston, Missouri Correctional Facility.
Golden has been an ardent supporter of Wayne County all of her life and is one of the last living educators with links to the days of one room schoolhouses, the historical society reports.
• Freda Leach (1917-2007)
Freda (Ward) Leach was a captivating, jovial and friendly person who was popular within her community from a young age. She attended Greenville High School and graduated there in the class of 1935. The same year she was nominated and elected the “Queen of Greenville” by the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce. This allowed her to represent Wayne County in the southeast Missouri area “Ozark Mardi Gras”.
After graduation Leach soon entered the education field, serving at the Montgomery District #17 in 1936, thus beginning a 35-year education career.
In 1958, she accepted a position at Greenville Elementary School to teach fourth and fifth grades. She was later hired as the principal for Greenville Elementary, becoming the first female to hold such an administrative position within the district.
• W. Marion Luna (1922-2015) and Frieda L. Luna (1922-2006)
William Marion Luna and Frieda (Phillis) Luna were high school and college sweethearts, both graduating from Piedmont High School and the University of Missouri. They were married on May 26, 1944. The couple became lifelong partners, not only in marriage but also in business. From 1946-1990, Marion and Frieda owned and operated Luna Hardware and Auto Supplies in Piedmont and had business interests in Piedmont Small Engines and Carter and Luna (Furniture, Hardware, Houseware, and Plumbing). Marion served as president of the Bank of Piedmont and was actively involved in Freemasonry as a member of Wayne Lodge No. 526 A.F. & A.M. Frieda taught commercial subjects at Patterson High School.
The Lunas were actively involved in the Piedmont Area Chamber of Commerce and the Wayne County Historical Society. Their final gifts to the community came after the death of Marion Luna, with several posthumous donations given to local organizations, including the gift of the old Luna Hardware building that today houses the Wayne County Historical Society’s “Luna Museum”, named in honor of the couple.
• Alice J. Moyer-Wing (1866-1937)
Alice Jane (Curtice) Moyer-Wing was only a Wayne County resident for two decades, but in that time, she became a celebrated citizen. Beginning in 1903, she became a leading national activist for women’s rights and equal suffrage. She was a prolific writer and orator and traveled nationally to lecture on behalf of the suffrage movement. Her journeys for the suffrage movement took her from coast to coast.
Once she took up residency in Wayne County, she gained notoriety for her efforts to bring the suffrage message to the rural Ozarks and traveled on horseback spreading the word.
Once women were granted the vote in 1920, Moyer-Wing endeavored in Missouri politics and became a pioneering woman for the Republican party. In 1920, she was one of the first two woman selected as delegates to the Republican National Convention.
Also in 1920, Missouri Governor Arthur Hyde appointed Mrs. Moyer-Wing to lead the Missouri Department of Industrial Inspection. She was the first female to hold a cabinet level position in the history of Missouri, and during her tenure both men and women were appointed to serve as factory inspectors with equal pay.
• Dr. O.A. Myers (1875-1965)
Orla A. Myers graduated from the Southeast Missouri Normal School at Cape Girardeau and taught locally in Wayne County rural schools. He eventually enrolled in the American Medical College in St. Louis and graduated in May of 1903.
Upon graduation he established a medical practice at Coldwater. Myers became one of the premier Wayne County country physicians of the twentieth Century.
In addition to Coldwater, he opened medical practices in Gravelton, Cascade, Fredericktown, Marble Hill, Zalma and Greenville. Throughout the years, he treated thousands of local residents and presided during several pandemics of influenza, smallpox and polio. Oftentimes many of his patients could not pay cash for their treatments, which resulted in non-monetary payments of livestock.
In the community he served as president of the St. Francis National Farm Loan Association, and he served as a director of the Wayne County Citizen’s Committee, a group dedicated to stop the construction of Wappapello Dam.
Myers served as a local physician for 62 years.
• J. Frank Paullus (1890-1977) and Roxie E. Paullus (1894-1995)
Frank Paullus led a life of leadership and service to the people of Wayne County and rural America. A prosperous farmer and stockman, Frank was appointed to the Hoover Farm Board, elected presiding judge of Wayne County for eight years, and served numerous years on the board of directors of the Rural Electrification Association, Missouri & Arkansas Power, and Wayne County Extension Council. Active in Farm Bureau since its infancy in Wayne County, he served as president or vice president for much of his time on the board of directors and worked closely with university extension, becoming the first in Wayne County to use lime on his fields and one of the first to construct terraces for soil erosion.
Roxie Paullus was one of the first women of Wayne County to receive a formal college education. Known widely as “Miss Roxie,” her life was marked by a love for teaching and learning. She taught school at Brunot and Piedmont and was recognized “as one of the county’s well-known and efficient teachers,” in charge of the notable Dale demonstration school, an outstanding model school for what is now Southeast Missouri State University.
Marrying Frank Paullus in 1923, she raised three children, a sizeable garden, and supported her husband in his many service roles. Roxie mentored Wayne County youth through her leadership in 4-H, passing on knowledge and love of the outdoors and guiding many to 4-H competitions at the state level.
• Roy C. Payton (1915-1992) and Opal Lee Payton (1919-2009)
Roy C. and Opal Lee (Russell) Payton were Wayne County natives who found their way back home to Piedmont in retirement.
Once reestablished in Wayne County, they took up residency in Piedmont and focused their efforts on the preservation of local history.
On May 16, 1985, they were instrumental in organizing the Wayne County Historical Society at Greenville. Their passion of historical preservation reached to many areas of Wayne County, including closely working with the U.S. Corps of Engineers to establish the Old Greenville Campground and Recreation Area, the historic “Memory Lane” walking trail, and the creation of “Old Greenville Days”.
The couple led the efforts in the process of placing Old Greenville and the Union, Wight and Hickman Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places.
They coordinated efforts with the Patterson community center in establishing the first Wayne County Historical Society Museum and Library and worked with the Wayne County Journal Banner in creating the weekly “Historic Wayne County” pictorial photo column.
Today the Payton Memorial Library at the Luna Museum in Piedmont immortalizes their memory.
• William Pinkney White (1845-1930)
William Pinkney White arrived in Wayne County by wagon train with his family at the age of five. A Union solider, he served as a private in CO H 31st Missouri Volunteers. After the war, he married and started raising a large family, which grew to 11 children.
White established himself locally as a pioneering General Baptist. He was elected the charter clerk of the West Liberty Association of General Baptists in 1885 and was one of three elected trustees to see to the relocation of the historic log Mt. Pisgah Church on Bear Creek to its present location north of Silva.
During the 1880’s and 1890’s he served as clerk in the Mt. Pisgah General Baptist Church and Green Hill General Baptist Church. In 1901, was instrumental in organizing the New Hope General Baptist Church in his home at Silva, where he served as deacon, clerk, and Sunday School teacher. White labored many years as public administrator of Wayne County, was a director and past president of the Silva School District No. 27 and was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic Post No. 854, Greenville.
Historically, the biggest contribution White left us was his personal journal. He depicted life locally during the Civil War, that we may not have known otherwise. Of all the Civil soldiers who hailed from Wayne County, White was the only one to put pen to paper with such detail. Today, it is a historical wonder.
For more information on the Hall of Honor, or to join the society and be eligible to nominate someone for the honor in 2023, please contact the Wayne County Historical Society at 573-223-2204. The Luna Museum, located at 108 W Elm in Piedmont, is open on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday 10 a.m. until 3 p.m.