Nora McCaffrey
American clubwoman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nora H. Moss McCaffrey Law Hamilton (September 25, 1879 – November 1958) was an American writer, educator, and clubwoman, based in Berkeley, Oakland, and Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
September 25, 1879
Nora McCaffrey | |
|---|---|
McCaffrey, from a 1929 newspaper | |
| Born | Nora Moss September 25, 1879 near Fort Bridger, Wyoming, U.S. |
| Died | November 25, 1958 (age 79) Carmel, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Nora Law, Nora Hamilton |
| Occupations | Writer, clubwoman, educator |
Early life and education
Nora Moss was born in a log cabin near Fort Bridger, Wyoming, the daughter of William Cartier Moss and Josephine Curtis Moss. Her father was a Union Army veteran of the American Civil War, and a teacher in Wyoming and California. She graduated from Kern County Union High School, and from the University of California, Berkeley.[1]
Career
McCaffrey taught English in the Oakland public schools from 1918 to 1945; she also advised student publications, sponsored a stamp collecting club,[2] and did publicity for student events.[3][4][5] In the 1940s, she wrote a column about the residents of Carmel-by-the-Sea for The Spectator, a weekly newspaper.[6] She also wrote columns for the Seaside News-Sentinel, Carmel Pine Cone, and Monterey County Herald,[7] and contributed to "The Educational Whirl", a humor feature in an education journal.[8][9]
During World War II McCaffrey was a counselor in a YWCA farm labor camp for girls near Hollister.[10] She received an award from the Monterey Peninsula USO, for meritorious service, for her weekly stint playing cards with servicemen. She was a member of the California Writers Club[11][12] and the Berkeley Short Story Club,[6] and publicity chair of the Carmel Woman's Club.[13]
Publications
- "Mrs. Hamlet's Soliloquy" (1924, poem)[14]
- "License Plates Motivate Letters" (1938, article)[15]
- "Class Parties and 'West Enders'" (1939, article)[16]
- "Yellowstone Park Diorama is Section of Wyoming's Exhibit at Exposition" (1939)[17]
- "The Educational Whirl" (1939, 1940, humor)[8][9]
- "Stamp Club Asks for New Members" (1951)[18]
Personal life
Moss married three times. She had two children with her first husband, James E. McCaffrey; a son Edwin, who died in 1941, and a daughter Joellyn.[19] Her second husband was Robert E. Law; they divorced in 1937.[20] Her final husband was retired sheriff Robert Hamilton; they were childhood friends in Wyoming, but only married in June 1958.[21] She died in November 1958, at the age of 80, in Carmel.[3] Her nephew Stanley McCaffrey was president of the University of the Pacific from 1971 to 1987.[1][22] Her papers are in the Berkeley Historical Society.[23]