Lucy More, Librarian & Instructor, 1936 UT Law School

An interesting start to this research. I had appeared to find who I was looking for right away in the Austin, Travis county, Texas 1930 census. A Lucy M. Moore, teacher at the state university, was single, 40, living with a boarder (another teacher) in her household. Her parents were from Virginia, but she was born in Texas. What a great match! But after that I could find no Lucy Moore born in 1890 with parents from Virginia. There was however, another persistent Lucy M. Moore, this one born in 1881 – quite a big gap even for sketchy census data. Lucy #2 also never married. She was also a teacher at the state unversity. She also lived with boarders in Austin, Travis county. But her parents were from Arkansas and Missouri (dad and mom respectively).

My suspicion is that the 1930 census is a fluke with bad data for whatever reason. As it happens Lucy #2’s mother (Leah Ann Bateman Moore) had parents from Virginia. Could that have been the mix up? What about the nearly 10 year age gap? All I know is that Lucy #1 doesn’t show up again. Here’s a little history on Lucy #2 as I follow the documents…

Born on September 5, 1881 in Texas. The family lived in Stephenville, Erath county, Texas where Lewellyn D. Moore, dad, was a farmer. In 1900 Lucy was 18 at home with 4 siblings. By 1910, she was working as a teacher but still living with family in Stephenville. A Lucy M. Moore shows up several times in 1918 and 1920 in The Catcus, the yearbook for the University of Texas. One of those is a photo of her with the UT Cofer Law Society. Hard to tell if the photos match, but my feeling now is it is likely her. If we are to go with the theory that 1930 Lucy equals Lucy #2 then she’s teaching at UT at the time and continues to do so in 1940.

Lucy died on November 2, 1953 in Stephenville. Sister Nell was the informant on her death certificate. She is buried in West End cemetery in Stephenville with her parents. She’ll have no children to follow this, but hopefully some nieces and nephews.

A quick side note that caught my attention when I did a simple Google search for Lucy:

From the endowments at the University of Texas webpage:

Name: Lucy M. Moore Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Law

Approval Date: October 12, 1990

Description: The Lucy M. Moore Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Law was established by the Board of Regents of The University of Texas System on October 12, 1990, for the benefit of the School of Law. Gift funds were provided by Mr. Emory T. Carl of Bellaire, Texas, a 1936 graduate of The University of Texas at Austin School of Law. The endowment honors Ms. Lucy Montlee Moore.