Papers of Cora May Trawick Court, 1875-1970

Cora May Trawick was born February 13, 1875 in Nashville, Tennessee. One of nine children, she was the daughter of Dr. Andrew Marcus Trawick and Martha Beneta McSwain Trawick, both of Tennessee. In 1896 she received the B.S. degree from Nashville College for Young Ladies, and in 1899 taught elementary school in Mexico at the Collegio Palmore. On April 18, 1901 she married Reverend William Court of St. Louis, and soon thereafter they moved to Kobe, Japan under the auspices of the General Board of Missions, Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Both Courts taught at Palmore Gakuin while in Japan, and Rev. Court was the minister of the Kobe Union Church. In 1905, after the birth of their first child, Andrew Trawick Court, they returned to Nashville, but later moved to St. Louis. Two more children were born in the next six years: Mary Lula Court in 1907 and William Court III in 1911. For the next nine years, Cora May Trawick Court was primarily a homemaker.

After Reverend Court died in the flu epidemic of 1920, St. Paul's Church asked Cora May Trawick Court to carry on his work in the religious education of children and young people. To prepare for this new career, Court studied religious education, psychology, and the "training of children" with the Home Study Department of the University of Chicago's Extension School, and at UC's summer school. After three and one-half years at St. Paul's, Court was asked by the General Secretary of the General Sunday School Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to join his staff in Nashville and undertake a study of child development and the family as a factor in religious education. For the next seven years (1923-1930) she worked with the Board conducting research, teaching parent education classes, and writing articles. She also took additional religion courses at Scarritt College in Nashville.

In 1930 Court moved to New York, where she studied parent education for two years at Teachers College, Columbia University, receiving the B.S. and M.A. degrees and a professional diploma as a "Leader of Parent Education." In 1932 she returned to Nashville and helped plan and conduct a comparative study of white and black mothers, also continuing to write book reviews and articles on parent and religious education. Later she moved back to New York and then to Detroit, finally settling in Massachusetts, where she taught courses in parent education and in Japanese culture at Lesley College (Cambridge) from 1945 till she retired in 1952. Lesley awarded her an Honorary Doctorate in 1956. While in Massachusetts she was active in the Copley Methodist Church (Boston) and in community work. In the late 1950's and early 1960's she was associated with the Age Center of New England (Boston). Her concern with race relations, family life, religious training, and child development is reflected in her papers. Cora Court died in May 1970.