Alma Blount

Alma Blount (1886) died at Tempe, AZ, Dec 2, 1950, after several years of lying flat on her back due to a slowly developing paralysis. Miss Blount taught English at Wheaton College for several years following her graduation. She later studied at Cornell University, obtained her Ph.D. degree, and went on to further study of the Arthurian Legends at Harvard University and at the Sorbonne in Paris. While her extensive research was never published, the manuscript was deposited in the archives of Harvard, where it is consulted by students of ancient literature. Dr. Blount resumed her teaching at State Teacher's College, Ypsilanti, MI, and continued in the field of English literature there until her retirement in 1935. At that time she moved to Arizona, and together with her niece, built a beautiful home on the outskirts of Phoenix, where they lived until the paralysis sent her to bed in a private nursing home. Her last year brought continual pain, but friends say that her courage and cheerfulness were phenomenal. She spend hours reading, writing, sewing and knitting.