Bertha Eugenia Bridges made this “fan” quilt ca. 1935-1945. Ms. Bridges worked as a domestic worker in Shelby, NC.

Bertha Eugenia Bridges made this “fan” quilt ca. 1935-1945. Ms. Bridges worked as a domestic worker in Shelby, NC.

She married John W. Bridges (later divorced) and was mother to Ezra Bridges.
Ezra Bridges first worked as a domestic worker.

She then attended Scotia Seminary and Hampton Institute.
In 1946 she graduated from Columbia University with an MA (the first Black woman from Cleveland County to do so).

Ms. Bridges then taught elementary school for 46 years, most of them in the segregated Cleveland School. from 1946-1992]

She helped bring Head Start to Cleveland County and found the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

In her “spare time,” she served on the Cleveland County Planning Board, the Hospital Board, and the Home Health Board, and was an active member of Ryburn Presbyterian Church.

Source: collection of the NC Museum Of History.