DR. GENEVA DRINKWATER

CHARLESTON -- Memorial service for Dr. Geneva Drinkwater of Winter Park, Fla., will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at McMikle Funeral Chapel in Charleston. The Rev. Rick White will officiate, with burial in IOOF Cemetery.

Drinkwater, 99, died Monday, July 21, 1997, in Winter Park.

She was born Oct. 15, 1897, in Charleston, daughter of Albert C. and Maud Sterett Drinkwater.

Drinkwater graduated from Charleston High School in 1912, received an associate of arts degree from Stephens College in 1915, and an AB degree from the University of Missouri in 1917. She was selected as the Latin scholar at Bryn Mawr College for graduate study in 1917-18.

She began teaching history at Stephens College in 1918. While working on her doctorate at the University of Chicago she received a fellowship for two years at the Vatican School of Paleography and Diplomtic in Rome.

Drinkwater was appointed to Stephens College Board of Curators in 1945. After teaching 10 years at Vassar College she returned to Charleston.

She helped establish the first public library in Mississippi County and was the first president of its library board. She established a nursing school in Charleston, served on the Charleston School Board and the County Health Department Board.

Drinkwater went to Winter Park in 1952 and taught history at Rollins College. She retired in 1963, and received a Fulbright Fellowship to teach at the University of Madras, India.

She was a community leader in Winter Park, was an interviewer and tutor as a Laubach volunteer 12 years, was active in the Council of Continuing Education, Church Women United, American Association of University Women, and United Nations Association.

Survivors include a nephew, Albert Drinkwater III of Charleston, and a niece, Diana Hall of Aberdeen, N.C.