Lucile Turner Asher Endowed Scholarship in Mathematics
Lucile Turner was born in Pratt and lived her entire life in Kansas. Her father, Lynn Turner, practiced law in Pratt and her mother, Laura Porter, was the daughter of county treasurer James Porter. Lucile was salutatorian of her 1922 Pratt High School class. Following graduation from Kansas Wesleyan in Salina, she taught at St. John High School for two years.
She married Manley Asher in 1929 and became a farmer’s wife and eventually a mother in 1936. Lucile returned to teaching in 1954 at Radium and at St. John in mathematics in 1955. She was widowed in 1957, and in 1960, she earned a Master’s degree in mathematics from Emporia State Teacher’s College. Lucile became the first Mathematics Specialist for the Kansas State Department of Education and moved to Topeka where she served until her retirement in 1971.
She returned to Pratt in 1980 to pursue her lifelong hobby, writing. She published histories of two Pratt county towns, Lawndale, her father’s family’s first Pratt County home, and Saratoga, the loser of a bitter county seat “war” with Pratt and Iuka. She joined Marguerite Neidhart to co-author and publish a history of Coats. In 1993, she published her autobiography, It Beats Bawling. In it she reflects her antidote for bawling, a good hearty laugh. She ends her recollections with two truths – first, the belief in and loyalty to something or someone greater than self; and second, consideration and respect for the rights and feelings of all those around us.