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- Orpha was educated at Pleasant Hill County School, Mitchell County, Iowa. Also was educated at Riceville High School, Riceville, Iowa. Also was educated at Evansville Jr. College, Evansville, Wisconsin. Also received a B. A. at Greenville College, Greenville, Illlinois. Also was educated at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Also received a M. A. at University of Southern California, California. Her occupation was teacher at Salem, Illinois. Then teacher at Westfield, Illinois. Then teacher at Riceville, Iowa. Then teacher at Charles City, Iowa. Then Superintendent of Education for six years at Mitchell County, Iowa. Then teacher at Marengo, Illinois. Then teacher at Rockford, Illinois. Then Elementary School Principal at Rockford, Illinois. Orpha played tennis while attending USC.
ORPHA by Ruby Noble-Dunton
Orpha Noble grew up on a farm in Mitchell County, rode and drove horses, milded cows, helped with haying a harvesting, shocking oats. She also had her fun: ice skating, sliding down hills in winter, playing baseball with her borthers and at school.
She watched over her youngest brother, Ross. If the older boys at school abused him, she would fight with her fists and always won. that was her character as a child.
As a teacher, she taught at Salem, IL, Westfield, IL, Riceville, IA, High School, Charles City, IA, Washington School; Marengo, IL, and Rockford, IL. She began her teaching career in Howard and Mitchell counties. She was County Superintendent of schools in Mitchell County for 6 years; then to Rockford, IL, to teach and become principal of two different schools.
While in Osage, she took her orders in education from the State Superintendent of Schools, Des Moines, and passed the orders onto the schools of the County. She liked the Mitchell County teachers with whom she worked. She didn't always agree with the State Superintendent and a few schools failed to cooperate, but mostly she enjoyed her work. She was disturbed with the thought of closing the country schools and busing children so many miles. She couldn't believe that was a good plan, but she saw it coming and decided to go to Rockford, IL.
Her education was at the Pleasant Hill country school, Riceville High School, Evansville Jr. College (WI), Greenville College, IL, Northwestern University at Evanston, IL and Master's Degree at USC, (CA). She wrote articles for the Northwestern Review on experiences in remedial reading. She took refresher courses oftern.
Orpha said, "Good teachers are born teachers-age makes no difference." Some of her teachers were old, some very young. She had great disgust for teachers' strikes or boycotts. She said it was beneath the dignity of the profession. It bothered her that so many children had no sense of right or wrong, and she tried to teach them the difference. She said that whle she was County Superintendent, she learned to wait for results and not to expect them immediately.
When she applied at Rockford, IL, the Board offered her a chlice of different schools. She, with her msisionary spirit, chose a poor neighborhood, which included mainly blacks and Italians. The Board told her she should choose a much better district. She preferred to help the poor chldren. Soon she was promoted to principal of two different schools.
After her retirement and upon receiving a teacher's pension, she volunteered to teach remedial reading with no compensation to boys placed in "Boy's Farm" due to the commission of minor crimes. She was the only woman teacher, and the boys confided in her as a mother. She discovered that after the boys learned to read, they no longer had criminal tendencies. Her missionary spirit still strong, she loved every young boy, and they all loved Miss Noble.
In her last illness, she had letters from former students. Many said that they would have been dropouts had it not been for her encouraging them.
From "Joseph Henry Noble and Annie Haigh Noble Family History and Genealogy"
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1895 - 1971 (76 years)
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