The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
by Betty Jo McConnell, The Quill
Meet your neighbor Leta Shell of La Harpe, born south of Fountain Green, on September 10, 1916. She came from a family of 3 siblings.
Leta went to grade school in Fountain Green and attended 3 years of high school in Fountain Green and graduated in 1932. At that time Fountain Green High school only went thru to the Junior year and if you wanted to finish high school you went on to either finish at Carthage, La Harpe or Blandinsville and you had to pay to go there.
After high school Leta attended and graduated from Quincy Beauty Academy. She returned to Fountain Green and opened her beauty shop.
Thru friends Leta met her husband Dan Shell.Dan was in the service and Leta wrote to Dan and in June of 1944 Leta traveled to Lompoc, California to actually meet him in person.Dan was stationed at Camp Cook.
They were married September 2, 1944. While in California Leta took a job working for the government driving a truck. She delivered men and food to the canteens until June of 1945.
In September of 1945 Dan and Leta moved back to Fountain Green and Leta started her beauty shop back up. Altogether Leta operated her shop for 40 years.
Leta and Dan moved to La Harpe in 1990. Leta said "We moved to La Harpe because it is a town we enjoyed coming to and it is such a friendly little town."
Now Leta lives in the Independent Living Extended Care Center in La Harpe. Leta says "I have lived a full life and have had a good life, I had a super Grandmother and family. I like living and if I had my sight I would think I was a millionaire."
Leta has several hobbies and before she lost most of her sight she loved to read, sew and quilt. She still crochets though and enjoys visiting with friends and family.
This beautiful American Flag afghan was created by Leta Shell of La Harpe. Leta loves to crochet and she has always wanted to make a flag afghan and she finally did. The project took Leta two weeks to create. The area where the stars are gave her a test of her creativity and as you can tell she done a great job. Diane Balmer created the stars that put the finishing touch to Leta's great creation.