Biography

Bessie Wilkerson moved to Fort Madison, Iowa, from Des Moines, Iowa, in 1927 and attended high school there. She dropped out of school at the age of sixteen to marry Marshall Wilkerson. They had three sons and six daughters of whom seven lived to adulthood. To help support her family, Wilkerson took in sewing, which she could work on at home while raising her children. All of the surviving children attended college, even though neither Bessie Wilkerson nor her husband ever finished high school. Bessie Wilkerson was nominated for Mother of the Year in 1961.

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