Wygal, Winnifred

Winnifred Crane Wygal was born August 25, 1884 in Springfield, Missouri, to Frank and Katie A. Bigelow Wygal. Frank Wygal was a wagon maker at the Springfield Wagon Works. Both parents read widely and encouraged their daughters to do likewise. Frank Wygal's Christian socialist beliefs fostered a strong commitment to social justice in the young Winnifred. In an autobiographical manuscript, Wygal wrote of her childhood: "I was wanted and loved and cherished. Life was exciting and good almost at once."

After graduating from Springfield High School, "Windy" Wygal attended Drury College (now Drury University) in Springfield, where she first joined the Young Women's Christian Association. After receiving her B.A. in 1906, Wygal taught high school English and Latin in Missouri from 1906 to 1911. Wygal attended the YWCA's National Training School in New York City and did graduate coursework at Columbia University in 1911-12. Drury awarded her an M.A. in 1912. A life-long student, Wygal also did post-graduate work at Union Theological Seminary and the University of Chicago Divinity School, as well as "special reading" with Canon Streeter at Oxford University and with H.B. Sharman of the Pendle Hill Quaker Center for Graduate Study.

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