The below biography was extracted from Lest We Forget, a family history written in 1983 and 1984 by Lucille “Tippy” Rebecca Kyle Harr, and updated in 2010 by Debra Harr.

Bessie or ‘B’, as my children called her, and the name soon caught on, could answer to all the requirements of a mother-in-law, instead of a sister-in-law, as she was so family oriented and mothered her siblings at an early age.

She was the second child and second daughter of John Rufus and Delarie Virginia Harr, born May 29, 1904, at Buena, West Virginia, in Tucker County. She was born two months premature and was placed in an incubator fashioned by her parents and was placed in the oven of the kitchen range.

She was happy to share her May 29 birthday with President John F. Kennedy.

Always conscientious in everything she did, no doubt her teaching abilities got more praise and attention than any other thing.

She graduated from Petersburg High School, class of 1923. High school in Grant County at that time was only 3 years. Dorothy graduated in the same class. Bessie participated in school plays and received honors for her intelligence and hard work. After high school came a term at Shepherd’s College in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, which gave her a certificate for teaching. Her first school was the Judy School, not far from Rough Run, West Virginia. She taught in other small one-room schools, but her talents were soon evident and she was moved to Johnson’s Run and soon after that to Petersburg Elementary, a school she taught at for 30 some years. She was lauded for her first grade achievements, and no doubt taught more first grade students than any teacher in Grant County. She was loved by those first graders and praised by mothers.

She attended Harr School for her grade schooling and Shepherd’s College and Fairmont State for a baccalaureate degree. She also took a correspondence course in Library Science at a mid west college. Honored as being an exceptional student, she received many certificates.

In 1929 she was chosen as Princess of the 6th Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival. She was considered a good choice and she felt honored to be a princess from Petersburg, West Virginia.

At or about this date, she bought the family home at 105 Spring Street in Petersburg.

Around 1940, after Dorothy, Hester, and Debs left the nest, Bessie rekindled a friendship with an ole beau, Victor Wolford. In 1942 on New Year’s Day, she married this 43 year old bachelor in the Lutheran Church at Red House, Maryland. She was married by Reverend A. K. Jones, and Hoye Smith and Mrs. Jones were witnesses.

At the end of that school year, she resigned from the school system and moved, bag and baggage to Canaan Valley to be with her new husband. She rented her Petersburg property.

In an earlier agreement, Bessie and Vic were to take care of Vic’s mother, Ida Wolford and inherit the 83 acre Wolford Farm. The house and farm weren’t too promising, but with hard work the home got floor covering, electricity, and indoor running water. As a bonus she got a bumper crop of bed bugs. The home soon became a gathering place for the family and a respite for Bessie. Mrs. Wolford only lived a year after Bessie and Vic took over the homeplace.

Bessie peddled dairy products, and it wasn’t long until Canaan Valley started to grow cauliflower, the finest in the state. Vic and Bessie grew all they could for Birdseye Vegetable Products of Pittsburgh, PA.

Partly because of necessity and partly as a reason to have outside interests, Bessie went back to teaching, her first love.

She became Petersburg High School Librarian and taught also at Johnson’s Run and then, problems began.

Victor had long periods of illness, and in 1960 was diagnosed as having lung cancer. After trips to Harrisonburg and his refusal for treatment, he became a home bound patient. Victor was then admitted to Grant Memorial Hospital and Bessie, at Hester’s insistence, went to Short Gap with her. After three weeks, Vic died on November 4, 1960. He was buried at Maple Hill Cemetery.

She returned to teaching and to her farm. She bought Angus cattle, learned to drive a car and bought one. She started courting Dr. Feaster Wolford, a relative of Vic’s and retired professor of agriculture from Buena College, KY. She was a companion with him for many years. He bought her a ring and it was the talk of the Valley, until the tide turned and he later found a lady from Kentucky that suited him better. These were not so happy days in her life.

In 1967 she was forced into selling the farm she inherited from Vic when the State wanted it for the Canaan Valley State Park. There was an auction of all farm machinery and equipment. They even sold the porcelain doorknobs from the house. I [Debra] recall her last day there; she took Vic’s farm hat and her garden bonnet and hung them in the mud room off the kitchen, in their usual place, and walked out the door. The next day, the bulldozer knocked down the house and barn and burned them. It was the end of a chapter in all of our lives.

Fortunately for Bessie, she had planned this move and bought acreage on Cortland Road in Canaan and had a new home built for herself. Perhaps the nicest thing she ever did for herself was she bought all new things, from pots and pans down to new furniture. Again it was from a pot-bellied stove for heating to electric heat, from linoleum to wall to wall carpeting; she was enjoying the good life.

After a 4 year return to Petersburg High School as school librarian, she retired from the Grant County Board of Education and moved to her new home on Cortland Road, Canaan Valley to attend to her flower garden, sewing and oil painting. She still hosted the Harr family through the years until she died September 5, 1976. She is buried at Maple Hill Cemetery; alongside her husband, Victor Wolford.