Many of Cora Holt’s former students remember her as a toe-the-line teacher, but there was more to the educator than meets the eye. Born Cora Edelene Rarden, she was a descendant of two of the earliest families in Kearny County. Her maternal great-grandfather, Joseph Dillon, was the editor of The Lakin Herald, and her grandmother, Maria Dillon Browne, earned a reputation as one of the best compositors in the state while typesetting for the paper. The Dillon family moved to Kearny County in 1879. Cora’s maternal grandfather, D. H. Browne, came to Lakin in 1880 and served many years as county clerk including during the time of the county seat wars.
D. H. and Maria Browne’s daughter Helen married James Harry Rardon in 1907. Known affectionately as Doc, Rardon had arrived in Lakin a year earlier to set up a dental office, and in 1909, he received his pharmacy certificate from the State of Kansas and purchased the drugstore here from Dr. G.C. Richards. Doc and Helen had three children: a son who died in infancy in 1908, daughter Jean born in 1909, and Cora, the baby of the family who was given the name of her paternal grandmother. News of Cora’s birth came via the Sept. 19, 1913 Advocate, “A little daughter arrived at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Rardon, Friday last, and the doctor is “wearing a smile that won’t come off.”
Doc Rardon was well-educated, well-rounded, and well-liked. He had a prowess for writing poetry, particularly love poems for his wife who he referred to as his Little Browne Hen. The wittiness and sweetness in his poetry leads one to assume that Cora grew up in a very loving and affectionate family. He sold the drugstore in 1910 and then ran drugstores elsewhere in Kansas and Missouri and was also a traveling salesman for pharmaceuticals. By 1920, the family was back living on their ranch west of Lakin while Doc continued with his salesman position.
Meanwhile, Cora grew to be both beautiful and bright. As a student at Lakin High School, she served three years on Student Council, was in charge of art in the 1931 Prairie Breeze annual, played violin in the orchestra, and participated in debate, drama, vocal, basketball and tennis. Cora was treasurer of the Girl Reserves, the predecessor to Y-Teens, and during her senior year, she was the lone female of five cheerleaders in the Kakaphony Club, the high school’s official pep club.
While Cora was very much a traditionalist, she was also a trailblazer. At a time when most women entered the teaching profession, she instead attended Kansas University where she earned her pharmacology degree in 1935. Cora returned to Lakin and began working as a registered pharmacist in Roy Menn’s drugstore, the same drugstore that her father had previously owned in the building that houses Duncan’s Lockers. The Rardons purchased Menn’s in June of 1936, and in 1939, they bought the building at 111 N. Main (now Shorty’s II) and moved their stock there. After Doc Rardon’s death in 1942, Cora and her mother continued to operate the pharmacy until March 1945 when they sold the business to Floyd Barnes of Ulysses.
On a Sunday afternoon in January 1945, Cora donned her mother’s wedding dress and married Edwin Holt, a well-liked prominent rancher. She gained two step-sons in the process, and in 1946, gave birth to her and Ed’s only child together, a son they named Jewell Harry after their fathers.
Catastrophe struck the young family on September 16, 1953 when Ed went to the Tate Ranch 10 miles southwest of Lakin to check cattle. When he did not return at the usual time, Cora became worried. Her neighbors, John and Elene Henderson, drove her to the ranch where they found Edwin’s body in the concrete stock tank. He had started climbing a 40-foot windmill tower to make repairs, and part of the wooden platform gave way. Ed fell backward, and according to the Hamilton County coroner, was apparently killed instantly when he struck the bottom of the tank.
Cora became a single parent and bread winner for her and her small son. She took a teaching job at Holcomb then taught at Deerfield Grade School for two years. She began her teaching career at Lakin in the fall of 1962 and taught until the end of the 1974-1975 school year. Cora served as president of the Parent-Teacher Association, was on the Kearny County Library’s board of directors when the library was built in the 1970s, taught first aid, and helped with Cub Scouts and the Red Cross. A member of the Order of the Eastern Star, Delta Kappa Gamma and the United Presbyterian Church, she also contributed stories to Vol. II of the History of Kearny County.
Cora Edelene Rardon Holt passed away in September of 1980, seven days shy of her 67th birthday. Her life was an example of perseverance and selflessness. While her students only knew Cora in her later years, the accompanying pictures reveal a very vibrant and attractive young woman who was nicknamed “Codie” by her classmates and admired for her “peppy” disposition.
SOURCES: 1931 Prairie Breeze; 1972-1973 Lakin Grade School annual; History of Kearny County Vols. I & II; Diggin’ Up Bones by Betty Barnes; archives of The Advocate, Lakin Independent, Chase Register, Kinsley Mercury and Lyons Republican; Museum archives; and photographs and archives received from the Jewell Holt Estate.