L. Grace Heaton

L. GRACE HEATON is now serving her third term as county superintendent of schools of Pratt County. Practically ever since she left high school she has been engaged in teaching in that vicinity, and her record and reputation are so well established that the people of that county need no confirmation of her abilities as a school administrator.

She was born at Mound City, Missouri, but has lived in Pratt County, Kansas, since early girlhood. Her grandfather, Alexander S. Heaton, was born in Kentucky in 1806, and was descended from a family that came from England to Virginia in early colonial times. Alexander Heaton was a farmer and followed the pioneer movement into the states of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and finally to Kansas, where he lived retired and died in Pratt County in 1897. He married Jemima Shaw, a native of New York state. Her ancestor came from Holland at the time of Peter Stuyvesant.

Joseph W. Heaton, father of Miss Heaton, and a resident of Pratt, was born in Iowa in 1854. He grew up in that state and in northwestern Missouri, married in Missouri, and for a number of years was a successful farmer and stockman at Mound City. In 1883 he brought his family to Kansas and was one of the earliest settlers in Pratt County. He bought a farm and still owns that land, and altogether has 640 acres in Pratt County, besides a farm in Seward County. He is a democrat, a member of the Methodist Church and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Joseph W. Heaton married Clara Ogle. She was born near Mound City, Missouri, and is descended from Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. Joseph W. Heaton and wife had a family of ten children, Miss Grace being the oldest. Floyd lives on a ranch in Seward County, Kansas. Harry is a farmer near Coats, Kansas. Fay is the wife of R. C. Knappenberger, a farmer at Penalosa, Kansas. Winetta married J. R. Knappenberger, also a farmer in the Penalosa community. S. George was employed by Swift and Company as a calf buyer at Kansas City, Missouri, until the war, and he was a soldier in the United States service at Camp Fort Wayne. Helen married Henry Barrett, and during his absence with the United States Marines at Camp Quantico she was engaged in teaching at Pratt. Bertha is a teacher in Pratt County. Jewell is a senior in the Pratt High School and Homer is a freshman in High School.

L. Grace Heaton attended the rural schools near her father's home in Pratt County and also the Pratt High School. Her first teaching was done in the country and later she was principal of graded schools in Kingman and Pratt counties, and finally taught in the city schools of Pratt until elected county superintendent in 1914. She was reelected in 1916 and 1918. Miss Heaton has the responsibility of supervising seventy-three schools in the county, a staff of 110 teachers and an enrollment of pupils to the number of 2,800.

Miss Heaton is a democrat in politics, is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with Sarah E. Stewart Chapter of the Eastern Star at Pratt, and with Pansy Lodge of Rebekahs at Pratt.

Pages 2519-2520.