Actually, she was born on a farm 5 miles northeast of Tekamah and at age 10 her family moved to the town where she entered the 4th grade. It was then that she contracted polio but no lasting damage occurred as she recovered her walking ability after a few months.

She graduated first place among 12 students from her high school in 1889 and won a scholarship to Gates College. That Fall she taught school in Oakland, Nebraska with a starting salary of $25 per month. In 1892 she received further education from the Nebraska State Normal School at Peru and met her future husband.

Between her graduation and her marriage, in 1896, she taught as a "first intermediate" and "second intermediate" teacher with a salary double that of what she was making a few years before. After he marriage to Lynn Arthur Quivey she moved with him to Fullerton, Nebr. (1897), Niobrara, Nebr. (1898), and finally to Osmond, Nebr. where her husband gave up teaching and they opened a small variety store.

Zella was socially involved with the Royal Neighbors' women's group and soon found herself with two children, Keith Mac and Katirna. In 1908 she followed her husband to Cozad where he took up teaching again, then to Lincoln, Nebr. in 1912 while he earned a Master's Degree from the University of Nebraska, and finally to Salt Lake City, Utah where she and family stayed until her death.

While in Salt Lake City she was involved with the Univ. of Utah Women's Faculty Club and during World War I was helping make supplies for the American Red Cross. Throughout her life she also served in various organizations of the First Methodist Church.

In her late 60's she began having eye hemmorhages which necessitated a visit to the Mayo Brothers Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, but nothing could be done and her sight slowly failed. Because of age and physical ailments, she and her husband sold their house and had a small one built for them behind their daughter's home at 431 South 12th East in 1952. Within a month of the move she fell, broke her hip and died within a few months time from surgery complications.

Received from Michael Wilson of Salt Lake City, Utah on 12 March 1997