Roberta Nottingham –Teacher (1903 – 1989); Eudora
By Ben Terwilliger, Eudora Community Museum Director
Roberta Nottingham overcame the debilitating effects of polio to become one of the Eudora community’s most beloved teachers. She was born in Lawrence on January 20, 1903 and named Emma Roberta Nottingham.[1] She attended Lawrence schools and KU, eventually teaching at various Eudora elementary schools from 1942-1968. She was noted for her kind and caring nature. In 1968, Eudora Elementary School, which had been built three years earlier, was renamed Nottingham Elementary in her honor.[2]
After retiring, Roberta continued to be involved with the school and the students. In 1986, Roberta, 83, was honored by students, community leaders, former students, and others on her birthday. A special ceremony took place in her former classroom, the “west room on the first floor,” where the Eudora School Board presented a resolution naming it the “Nottingham Room.” A special plaque was placed in the room. Former student, Rep. David Miller, presented a resolution passed in the Kansas House of Representatives paying tribute to Roberta’s life and career by designating her birthday as “Nottingham Day.”[3] After its establishment, students were selected each year on Nottingham Day to have lunch with her, and she told them stories. “She always told the kids that you could overcome anything,” said former principal Tom Jerome.[4]
Nottingham Elementary School closed in 2009. It, like Roberta, was important to the Eudora community. Former students, teachers, and parents posed for pictures by the school before it was demolished in 2019. The Eudora Times article “We Were the Nottingham Family: Eudora Says Goodbye to Elementary School,” indicated the positive impact Roberta Nottingham and Nottingham Elementary School made on so many. After demolition about 1,000 bricks from Nottingham were made available for people to pick up for sentimental purposes.[5]
In 2021, the “Nottingham Center,” a commercial district in Eudora, was named in her honor.[6]
Roberta Nottingham passed away in Lawrence on June 4,1989. She rests at Oak hill Cemetery in Lawrence with her parents and some of her siblings.[7] Nottingham Day continued to be celebrated on her birthday into the 2000s; thus, keeping Roberta’s memory alive for many years after her death, and indicating the importance of this woman to the Eudora community.
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- [1] findagrave.com/memorial/257259941/emma-roberta-nottingham
- [2] “We Were the Nottingham Family: Eudora Says Goodbye to Elementary School.” The Eudora Times, 2019.
- [3] youtube.com/watch?v=tQ9JKGWy5hc&t=163s
- [4] “We Were the Nottingham Family”
- [5] Ibid.
- [6] youtube
- [7] findagrave
Image: Eudora Community Museum
