Alice Mildred (Anderson) Buell Adamson Grimes was born on December 12, 1906, in Bisbee, Cochise County, Arizona Territory, to Edith Maude (Haggard) and William Melvin Anderson.
Alice attended Tempe Normal School in Tempe, Arizona where she received a teaching degree in 1926. She started teaching immediately at the elementary school that she had attended, Nofstger Hill School in Globe.
She married Edward “Eddy” Bezanson Buell (1888-1972) on January 2, 1927, in Clifton, Greenlee County, Arizona. They had six children; Edith, born July 12, 1928; Laura, born in 1929; Edward, born on November 11, 1931; Theodore (Ted), born December 10, 1933; Mary Bell, born October 3, 1936; and John, born August 13, 1938.
After marrying Eddy in 1927, Alice’s teaching contract was not renewed, due to the common belief that married women should be supported by their husbands. Wives were usually not allowed to teach.
During the years from 1927 to 1942, the family moved from place to place to find available jobs for Eddy. Finding a job during the Great Depression was not easy. In 1935, five-year-old Laura became sick with scarlet fever and passed away. Adequate medicine had not yet become available.
In 1942, they moved to Lakeside in Navajo County, Arizona. The nearby town of Pinetop was opening a new two-room schoolhouse, and they needed a second teacher. When the president of the school board heard Alice had teaching experience, she was hired immediately. By this time, the ban against wives teaching had eased.
Alice continued her education, receiving a bachelor’s degree in education in 1948 from Arizona State College, after five years of summer school. She taught in Globe for two years and in Pine Top for twenty-nine years. Teaching was her calling, her passion and her life. Her husband, Eddy, who was in failing health, passed away on the night of her retirement party in 1972.
She was active in a musical arts sorority that raised money for high school student scholarships. She was a member of Mizpah Chapter of the Eastern Star and a past Worthy Matron. She was also a member of the American Legion Auxiliary, the White Mountain Musical Arts Club, the Navapache Hospital Auxiliary and the Lakeside and Show Low Baptist Churches.
After the death of her husband, Eddy, she married Otis Gale Adamson (1904-1978) on February 7, 1976 in Pinetop. After his death in 1978, she married Frank Grimes (1908-1991) on July 14, 1979 in Pinetop.
She remained faithful to the cause of educating the children of the community and those of the Pinetop Baptist Church until April 12, 1994 when she passed away at Pueblo Norte Nursing, Center in Show Low, Navajo County, Arizona. She is buried at Old Pinetop Cemetery.
"Her legacy is those she taught in her home, school and church. Truly, it can be said of Alice Mildred Buell, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant,’ stated by John Buell, Alice’s youngest son, in 2014.
Donor: Edward , son, and Nancy E. Buell, daughter-in-law, June 6, 2015
Photo Located: RGC MS-39, Box G, F-Grimes, Alice (Anderson) Buell
Updated: 8/1/2015; Gretchen Hough Eastman
