Harriet Chappell was the daughter of Charles Arthur and Clementine (Fason) Chappell. She earned a B.S. degree in 1925 from Georgia Peabody College for Teachers and a Fulbright Fellowship in England in 1956-7. She served as Director of the Manuscript Section, Tennessee State Library and Archives, 1958-1970 and subsequently as co-editor of "The Papers of Andrew Jackson." ("Contemporary Authors," vols. 81-84 [1979], p. 428-9.)
Obituary, Nashville's "The Tennesseean" of 4 July 1999.
Harriet Chappell Owsley, 97, a retired archivist for the Tennessee State Library and Archives and one of the community's most zealous and knowledgeable historians, died Friday at her home of heart failure after a lengthy illness. Mrs. Owsley was considered the "Sherlock Holmes of Tennessee history" because of her passion for tracking down local historical clues. Her many important discoveries over the years are legend, and Mrs. Owsley, as head of the state library's manuscript division, "made her department a drawing card for researchers from over the nation," Tennessean historical writer Louise Davis said in an extensive profile of Mrs. Owsley in 1968. The story called her "The Lady Detective of Capitol Hill." In an old box, for example, she spotted a real jewel in the 1927 statement of an ex-slave, Coleman Davis Smith, then 84, who recalled witnessing his master, Confederate hero Sam Davis of Smyrna, being hanged by the Union Army for being a spy. Smith told of how he tried in vain to convince Davis to tell the Union authorities what they wanted to know so his life might be spared. Services will be at West End United Methodist Church at a time to be determined later. Burial will be in Tuscaloosa Memorial Park, Tuscaloosa, Ala. Marshall-Donnelly-Combs is in charge of arrangements. Mrs. Owsley was a native of Waco, Texas, and a daughter of the late Charles and Clementine Chappell. She was the widow of Frank Lawrence Owsley, a well-known former history professor at Vanderbilt University. The couple lived on the Vanderbilt campus from 1920 to 1949, when they moved to Tuscaloosa, Ala. When the professor died in 1956, Mrs. Owsley moved back to Nashville and became archivist for the state library. She attended Birmingham-Southern College, Birmingham, Ala., and was a graduate of Peabody College. After she retired from her library job in 1970, she was an assistant director of the Andrew Jackson Papers at The Hermitage. She was assistant editor of Volume I of the Papers of Andrew Jackson and the author they swear author, not editor of Frank Lawrence Owsley: A Memoir, published by Vanderbilt University Press in 1989. Memorial contributions may be made to West End United Methodist Church or to the Frank L. Owsley Scholarship Fund at the University of Alabama.
Obituary, Nashville's "The Tennesseean" of 4 July 1999.
Harriet Chappell Owsley, 97, a retired archivist for the Tennessee State Library and Archives and one of the community's most zealous and knowledgeable historians, died Friday at her home of heart failure after a lengthy illness. Mrs. Owsley was considered the "Sherlock Holmes of Tennessee history" because of her passion for tracking down local historical clues. Her many important discoveries over the years are legend, and Mrs. Owsley, as head of the state library's manuscript division, "made her department a drawing card for researchers from over the nation," Tennessean historical writer Louise Davis said in an extensive profile of Mrs. Owsley in 1968. The story called her "The Lady Detective of Capitol Hill." In an old box, for example, she spotted a real jewel in the 1927 statement of an ex-slave, Coleman Davis Smith, then 84, who recalled witnessing his master, Confederate hero Sam Davis of Smyrna, being hanged by the Union Army for being a spy. Smith told of how he tried in vain to convince Davis to tell the Union authorities what they wanted to know so his life might be spared. Services will be at West End United Methodist Church at a time to be determined later. Burial will be in Tuscaloosa Memorial Park, Tuscaloosa, Ala. Marshall-Donnelly-Combs is in charge of arrangements. Mrs. Owsley was a native of Waco, Texas, and a daughter of the late Charles and Clementine Chappell. She was the widow of Frank Lawrence Owsley, a well-known former history professor at Vanderbilt University. The couple lived on the Vanderbilt campus from 1920 to 1949, when they moved to Tuscaloosa, Ala. When the professor died in 1956, Mrs. Owsley moved back to Nashville and became archivist for the state library. She attended Birmingham-Southern College, Birmingham, Ala., and was a graduate of Peabody College. After she retired from her library job in 1970, she was an assistant director of the Andrew Jackson Papers at The Hermitage. She was assistant editor of Volume I of the Papers of Andrew Jackson and the author they swear author, not editor of Frank Lawrence Owsley: A Memoir, published by Vanderbilt University Press in 1989. Memorial contributions may be made to West End United Methodist Church or to the Frank L. Owsley Scholarship Fund at the University of Alabama.
Harriet Chappell was the daughter of Charles Arthur and Clementine (Fason) Chappell. She earned a B.S. degree in 1925 from Georgia Peabody College for Teachers and a Fulbright Fellowship in England in 1956-7. She served as Director of the Manuscript Section, Tennessee State Library and Archives, 1958-1970 and subsequently as co-editor of "The Papers of Andrew Jackson." ("Contemporary Authors," vols. 81-84 [1979], p. 428-9.)
Obituary, Nashville's "The Tennesseean" of 4 July 1999.
Harriet Chappell Owsley, 97, a retired archivist for the Tennessee State Library and Archives and one of the community's most zealous and knowledgeable historians, died Friday at her home of heart failure after a lengthy illness. Mrs. Owsley was considered the "Sherlock Holmes of Tennessee history" because of her passion for tracking down local historical clues. Her many important discoveries over the years are legend, and Mrs. Owsley, as head of the state library's manuscript division, "made her department a drawing card for researchers from over the nation," Tennessean historical writer Louise Davis said in an extensive profile of Mrs. Owsley in 1968. The story called her "The Lady Detective of Capitol Hill." In an old box, for example, she spotted a real jewel in the 1927 statement of an ex-slave, Coleman Davis Smith, then 84, who recalled witnessing his master, Confederate hero Sam Davis of Smyrna, being hanged by the Union Army for being a spy. Smith told of how he tried in vain to convince Davis to tell the Union authorities what they wanted to know so his life might be spared. Services will be at West End United Methodist Church at a time to be determined later. Burial will be in Tuscaloosa Memorial Park, Tuscaloosa, Ala. Marshall-Donnelly-Combs is in charge of arrangements. Mrs. Owsley was a native of Waco, Texas, and a daughter of the late Charles and Clementine Chappell. She was the widow of Frank Lawrence Owsley, a well-known former history professor at Vanderbilt University. The couple lived on the Vanderbilt campus from 1920 to 1949, when they moved to Tuscaloosa, Ala. When the professor died in 1956, Mrs. Owsley moved back to Nashville and became archivist for the state library. She attended Birmingham-Southern College, Birmingham, Ala., and was a graduate of Peabody College. After she retired from her library job in 1970, she was an assistant director of the Andrew Jackson Papers at The Hermitage. She was assistant editor of Volume I of the Papers of Andrew Jackson and the author they swear author, not editor of Frank Lawrence Owsley: A Memoir, published by Vanderbilt University Press in 1989. Memorial contributions may be made to West End United Methodist Church or to the Frank L. Owsley Scholarship Fund at the University of Alabama.
Obituary, Nashville's "The Tennesseean" of 4 July 1999.
Harriet Chappell Owsley, 97, a retired archivist for the Tennessee State Library and Archives and one of the community's most zealous and knowledgeable historians, died Friday at her home of heart failure after a lengthy illness. Mrs. Owsley was considered the "Sherlock Holmes of Tennessee history" because of her passion for tracking down local historical clues. Her many important discoveries over the years are legend, and Mrs. Owsley, as head of the state library's manuscript division, "made her department a drawing card for researchers from over the nation," Tennessean historical writer Louise Davis said in an extensive profile of Mrs. Owsley in 1968. The story called her "The Lady Detective of Capitol Hill." In an old box, for example, she spotted a real jewel in the 1927 statement of an ex-slave, Coleman Davis Smith, then 84, who recalled witnessing his master, Confederate hero Sam Davis of Smyrna, being hanged by the Union Army for being a spy. Smith told of how he tried in vain to convince Davis to tell the Union authorities what they wanted to know so his life might be spared. Services will be at West End United Methodist Church at a time to be determined later. Burial will be in Tuscaloosa Memorial Park, Tuscaloosa, Ala. Marshall-Donnelly-Combs is in charge of arrangements. Mrs. Owsley was a native of Waco, Texas, and a daughter of the late Charles and Clementine Chappell. She was the widow of Frank Lawrence Owsley, a well-known former history professor at Vanderbilt University. The couple lived on the Vanderbilt campus from 1920 to 1949, when they moved to Tuscaloosa, Ala. When the professor died in 1956, Mrs. Owsley moved back to Nashville and became archivist for the state library. She attended Birmingham-Southern College, Birmingham, Ala., and was a graduate of Peabody College. After she retired from her library job in 1970, she was an assistant director of the Andrew Jackson Papers at The Hermitage. She was assistant editor of Volume I of the Papers of Andrew Jackson and the author they swear author, not editor of Frank Lawrence Owsley: A Memoir, published by Vanderbilt University Press in 1989. Memorial contributions may be made to West End United Methodist Church or to the Frank L. Owsley Scholarship Fund at the University of Alabama.
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