Lehmann, Katharine. 1876-1960

Katharine Lehmann was born on August 13, 1876, to the Rev. William Lehmann and Catherine Oberlin Lehmann. She was the youngest of six children. Her father was a faculty member of Capital University, Columbus, Ohio, and served as its president for twenty years. He died in 1880 when Katharine was four years old. This necessitated that Katharine and her mother live with Katharine's older brother, William H. Lehmann. The family remained in Columbus until 1893 when the newly created Lima College, Lima, Ohio, called William, an ordained minister, to teach classical languages. Miss Lehmann enrolled at Lima and received a bachelor of arts degree in 1897, in addition to a diploma in music in 1896 and a diploma in elocution in 1898.

For two years she taught history, German, Greek, and English at Circleville High School, Circleville, Ohio, before moving in 1902 with her brother to Bellevue, Ohio, when he accepted a call to St. John's Lutheran Church. In Bellevue Miss Lehmann taught private music lessons for thirty years while serving as choir director and organist at St. John's for twenty-five years.

Miss Lehmann was instrumental in the formation of one of the predecessor's to the WMF, the JSO's Women's Missionary Conference (WMC). When the WMC formed in 1914, it elected Miss Lehmann its first recording secretary. She served in that office until 1918. In 1921 she began the Women's Department section in the JSO publication Lutheran Standard. Miss Lehmann succeeded Mrs. J.H. Kuhlmann as president of the WMC in the fall of 1921 and continued to serve as president until 1931 when, after the merger that created the American Lutheran Church, she was elected to the post of President of the newly formed Women's Missionary Federation. She served as president until her retirement in 1950.

In the summer of 1960, she suffered a series of slight strokes that made it increasingly difficult for her to remain active, but she continued with activities of daily life up until the day she died. On November 4, 1960, she passed away at the age of eighty-four. She was laid to rest at Green Lawn Cemetery, Columbus, Ohio.

From the description of Katherine Lehmann Papers 1931-1986; 1931-1950. (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Library). WorldCat record id: 55087795