Mary S. Yocom Papers

Mary Sareta "Molly" Yocom, founder of Orchard Kindergarten in Oberlin, was born in Pennsville, Ohio, on July 9, 1894 to Eli King (1861-1929) and Theresea Maria Coulson Yocom (1862-1953). She had three siblings: Charles Herbert (1885-1951), Ernest George (1889-1952), and Frances Lydia (1899-1994). She moved to Oberlin with her family in 1907 when her father opened Yocom’s Dry Goods Store. The store later became Yocom Brothers Co., and was operated by Molly’s brothers, C. Herbert (Oberlin College Class of 1909), and Ernest G. (Class of 1913), until the latter’s death in 1952.

Mary Yocom graduated from Oberlin College in 1916. She did graduate work at the University of Chicago in 1917-18 and then studied at the Oberlin Kindergarten Training School in 1918-19. She taught kindergarten in Youngstown, Ohio, in public schools in 1919-20, and taught for two years at West Texas State Teachers College in Canyon, Texas, in 1921 and 1922.

After receiving her master’s degree at Columbia Teachers’ College in 1923, Yocom was a supervisor at the Oberlin Kindergarten Training School (renamed the Oberlin Kindergarten-Primary Training School in 1927) until it closed as an independent school and merged with the Department of Education at Oberlin College in 1932. She established Orchard Kindergarten in Oberlin in 1925 to give students at the training school an opportunity for “on-the-job” training.

The Kindergarten-Primary major was available at Oberlin College until the academic year 1964-65. Yocom became an instructor in the Department of Education in 1933, and was promoted to assistant professor in 1941. She retired as associate professor in 1958. She was active in the work of the Methodist Church in Oberlin, was an officer of the American Association of University Women, and a member of the Child Study Association.

In April 1968, Mary Yocom and her sister Frances (Class of 1921) and their sister-in-law, Mary "Inez Willis (1893-1985), wife of Charles, moved from Oberlin to Copeland Oaks, a retirement center owned and operated by the Methodist Church in Sebring, Ohio. She died on December 18, 1968 after a two-year illness.

Sources Consulted

Obituary for Mary Sareta Yocom, Oberlin Alumni Magazine, February 1969, 38.

Administrative history, finding guide for the Oberlin Kindergarten-Primary Training School Records, Oberlin College Archives.

Note written by Salsich, Anne Cuyler.