Rosemary Quinn

Rosemary Quinn, of Fort Smith, Arkansas, died in Barling, Arkansas, on Saturday, January 17, 2009, her 110th birthday. Rosemary was born in Morrilton, Arkansas, on January 17, 1899; she spent her childhood in Vian, Indian Territory, where her father was the freight agent for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. She completed high school in Vian in 1918 and received a Life Certificate for Teaching from Northeastern State, Tahlequah, Oklahoma in 1920. Rosemary taught grammar school in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, and Nampa, Idaho. In the mid 1920s, she and her late sister, Grace Marie Quinn, moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where they lived and taught school for more than forty years, driving home to visit their family in Arkansas every summer. Rosemary took a special interest in the cowboy life and culture, and she and her students wrote and illustrated poems and stories about cowboys and their lives. She was herself an accomplished horsewoman. She collected American Indian jewelry, especially Navajo silver and turquoise, and wore her Indian necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and concha belt with great care and pride. Rosemary and her sister retired from teaching in the late 1960s and returned to Morrilton, where they built a home and planted a garden of Magnolias, hollies, camellias, and other plants they loved and remembered from their childhood. Rosemary was an enthusiastic naturalist and bird watcher who kept her binoculars and field guide on the table in her sitting room. When she was in her nineties, Rosemary moved to Fort Smith to be near her niece, Nancy Bedford Ross. Four generations of her family attended her 100th birthday party in Fort Smith, along with many old friends and relatives from Morrilton and several of her former students from Cheyenne. She was a lifelong Democrat, told tales of bootleg whiskey flown in to Cheyenne during Prohibition, and was very proud of her Irish heritage; the Irish blessing was among her favorite prayers. She dictated her oral history and donated the tapes to the University of Wyoming, where they are on file and have been transcribed by the American Heritage Center of the University of Wyoming. Rosemary was a member of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Fort Smith. She was preceded in death by her sisters Anne Quinn, Grace Marie Quinn, Dorothy Quinn Bedford, and her niece Sally Bedford. She is survived by her niece, four great-nieces, and eight great-great nieces and nephews. Funeral mass will be 11:00 a.m. Friday, January 23, 2009, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Morrilton with burial at Elmwood Cemetery by Harris Funeral Home of Morrilton. Memorials may be sent to Fort Smith Public Library, 3201 Rogers Ave., Fort Smith, Arkansas 72903 or Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 506 E. Broadway, Morrilton, Arkansas 72110, or Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, 22 North 13th St., Fort Smith, Arkansas 72902.