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John C. Berry and Stella Sophia Hall

Carrollton IL, 1890

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Mrs. Berry, Author Of Many Poems, Dies

Mrs. Stella S. Berry, widely know for her literary work and loved for the
beautiful poems she wrote, died Tuesday morning at Passavant Hospital,
Jacksonville, where she had been taken only a few days before from her
home here. She had been in ill health for several years, and since the death
of her son, Rev. Jesse L. Berry of Granite City about a month ago, she had
declined rapidly.

The funeral is to be held at 2 o'clock this afternoon at the M. E. Church, of
which she was a member, and will be conducted by the pastor, Rev. J. R.
Ford.

Mrs. Berry was born in Carlinville, Dec. 28, 1851, and was the daughter of
Oliver W. and Debora Hall, pioneers of Macoupin County. Hergreat-
grandfather was a soldier of the Revolutionary War, and she wasa
descendant of Judge James Hall, editor of the first magazine published in
Illinois. On reaching womanhood, she became a teacher, and was for some
years connected with the Carlinville schools, and later taught for seven
years in Greenfield. Her pupils, scattered far and wide, remember her most
affectionately as their teacher in the primary room.

She was married in 1869 to John C. Berry of Edwardsville, a veteran of the
Civil War. To them were born two sons, Jesse L. and Leon C. The former
died recently. The family moved to Carrollton some thirty years ago, and
Mr. Berry died here in 1912.

Mrs. Berry early formed a taste for writing and for newspaper work. She
possessed that fine quality of mind and heart that inspired her to produce
poems worth to live in literature. She wrote for some of the leading
magazines. Her poems of Christmas, Easter, and Memorial Day are
especially fine. Most of these anniversary poems in recent years were
written for and appeared in The Patriot, and our readers learned to look for

and prize them. Several years ago a number of them were printed by her son
in a booklet.Only within the past year has she been forced by failing sight
and health to give up her work. But that work will live in the hearts of her
friends.

The Carrollton Patriot, Thursday, April 21, 1927; front page