Emma Louise Thompson McGowan

Emma Louise Thompson McGowan was born in Winchester, Virginia in 1876. When she was thirteen years old, McGowan moved with her family from Winchester, Virginia to Carlisle, Pennsylvania escaping the devastation of the South and seeking a new life in the North.¹ At twenty-one years old, McGowan began to teach at the Lincoln School for the Colored in Carlisle. With her father’s intervention, she soon married Osbourne McGowan, a pastor at Carlisle’s Third Presbyterian Church and quickly had two children, Osbourne Lloyd, who died a year after his birth, and Albert Edward.²

The McGowan family moved around several times during the first few years of their marriage. They lived in Ontario for a few years, before moving to Detroit, Michigan. During this time, McGowan and her husband Osbourne, welcomed four more children, Ruth Victoria, Edith McGregor, Mary and Gladys.³ The birth of Gladys sparked a change in McGowan’s husband, Osbourne, who became abusive. Immediately Emma began the process of divorcing her husband. Although Mary had died during this time, McGowan began raising her four remaining children on her own, while beginning to work odd jobs to support her family. With the help of her extended family, McGowan was able to accrue enough funds to finalize the divorce in 1917.⁴

After the divorce was finalized, McGowan moved back to Carlisle with her children. She was able to resume teaching at the Lincoln School for the Colored while her oldest children began to work odd jobs to help contribute financially to the family.⁵ McGowan continued to work hard, officially securing her teaching license after taking summer and weekend classes at the Cumberland Valley Normal School.⁶

McGowan's faith and life experiences greatly impacted how she interacted with her students. The concept of family was very important to McGowan, as she sought to influence her students, who would influence their parents, who would go on to influence the community. One quality that McGowan embodied throughout her entire life was determination. Through her childhood, divorce, and teaching career, McGowan did not allow life's circumstances to influence her beliefs or her mission. When McGowan retired in 1943, she had been teaching for over thirty years.⁷

In 2002, just under 40 year after McGowan's death in 1966, a dedication ceremony took place at the Emma T. McGowan building of Carlisle high school, which had been given this name three years earlier in honor of a teacher who left quite an impact on her students, many of whom became teachers themselves.⁸ The legacy of McGowan lives on not only on the grounds of Carlisle High School but also in the lives of the students that she taught.

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