Kates Notes:  Lizzie Carl (McVay) Gillilan was the wife of Lewis McClellan Gillilan, noted Utah educator. Lizzie was accomplished in her own right, attaining a masters degree from Ohio University at a time when few women were afforded such high academic goals. No doubt the McVay and Gillilan families shared  this egalitarian view towards the higher education of women, as Lewis’ own sisters were women of accomplishment as well.

The Salt Lake Telegram
Salt Lake City, Utah
28 August, 1947

Lizzie M. Gillilan

    Mrs. Lizzie McVay Gillilan, 84, New York City, widow of a prominent Salt Lake educator, died last Friday while visiting at the home of her eldest daughter, Mrs. Ruth Eakin, Forest Hills, Pa., it was learned Wednesday by friends in Salt Lake City.
    She was married to Lewis M. Gillilan in Athens, O., in July, 1887, a year after receiving the degree of bachelor of philosophy at Ohio university. She received her masters degree in 1889.
    Mr. Gilliland was prominent in Salt Lake City educational work and was head of the old “part time” schools for many years. He taught at West high school for several years prior to his death in Salt Lake City in 1935.
    Following her husband’s death, Mrs. Gillilan lived in Tokyo, Japan, for a year with a daughter, Elizabeth Gillilan, teacher at Women’s Christian college in Tokyo. Miss Gillilan now lives in New York City.
    Besides her two daughters, she is survived by a son and another daughter, Mrs. Ann S. Welch, Concord, Cal., and Paul McVay Gillilan, Erie, Pa.; two sisters, Miss Anna Pearl McVay and Mrs. C. E. Skinner, both of Athens, O.
    Funeral and burial were conducted Sunday at Athens.*

-transcription by Kate Maynard, 2011

*Lizzie and Lewis, as well as their children, are interred at the Alexander-Union/Old Cumberland Cemetery south of Athens. This cemetery surrounds the Alexander Presbyterian Church property.