The Life of Laura Inez Hammann
Born: December 16, 1904, Conway, Kansas
Died: October 23, 2007, Omaha, Nebraska
Laura Hammann was born in 1904, a beautiful red-headed girl, the eldest child (of seven) of Lewis and Ella Hammann. Others born the same year include Cary Grant, Jimmy Dorsey, Glen Miller, Salvador Dali, and Count Basie. Theodore Roosevelt was President. Marie Curie discovered two new radioactive elements that year.
She started school in Fairview Kansas, completing her education through high school in McPherson, Kansas in a class of 40 students in 1922. After high school, she attended McPherson College, graduating in 1926 with a Bachelors of Arts degree. She continued her education at the State University of Iowa from 1927 – 1932, receiving a Master’s degree at a time when few women in Kansas were considering a Master’s degree. Her sister Nina helped her financially during this time, with payback coming when Nina attended the University of Kansas to get her Bachelor’s degree.
Laura’s love of education and her desire to see more of the world than McPherson, Kansas, led her to work and study in a variety of locations, including Waterloo, Iowa; Kansas City, Missouri, and Madison, Wisconsin (where she took graduate classes in 1934.) In 1936, she applied and was accepted for a position in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she taught Physical Education. She loved Ann Arbor – a university town, a cultural center, new friends, new experiences, and travel opportunities. While in Ann Arbor, she traveled through Canada and the east coast of the USA. She taught dance classes in Lansing, Michigan, and in 1936 – 1939 took dance classes in Bennington, VT with Martha Graham. She made her mother proud, and was looked up to by her sisters and brother.
Laura Hammann – 1944
Not wanting to teach Physical Education the rest of her life, Laura researchd and learned about exciting opportunities with the Red Cross. In 1942 Laura accepted a job with the Red Cross, and was stationed in France and Germany from 1944 – 1948, even before WWII was over. She returned to work for the Red Cross in Washington, DC in 1949.
In 1957, the Red Cross sent Laura to Pepperell AFB, Newfoundland. She was the first Red Cross woman to be assigned to duty above the Arctic Circle.
Laura love of travel and her job assignments took her to Alaska, Hawaii, and 45 of the lower 48 states, as well as many countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and North America.
Egypt
Singapore
In 1970, Laura retired from the Red Cross after 30 years of service. She settled in Arlington, Virginia, but continued to work in a volunteer capacity at the Smithsonian Institution for 20 years, retiring a second time in 1990 she was 86 years old.
As anxious as she was to get out of McPherson as a young woman, Laura’s ties to her home town remained. Her Red Cross uniform is in the McPherson Museum, and she donated a stained glass window to the renovated McPherson Opera House.
Laura moved to Omaha to be near her sister Audrey in 1996, and she died in 2007, two months shy of her 103rd birthday. Her ashes are buried in the family plot in McPherson.
Laura’s 100th Birthday Party
Laura was an inspiration to her entire extended family. Stories of her life will be remembered and past on for years to come.
Friends and Relatives on LifenTimes
Audrey Luella Hammann Bedell – Sister
Nina Hammann Berry – Sister
Lewis and Ella Hammann – Parents
Zella Hammann Kubin – Sister
Myreta Hammann Stephan – Sister