Beverly L. Yates Peebles Scholarship

The Beverly L. Yates Peebles Scholarship was established in memory of Beverly L. Yates Peebles, who was born on December 30, 1922 to Harry Fletcher Yates and Laura McCoy Yates in Harco, Illinois. Shortly after her birth they moved to New Burnside, Illinois. Beverly attended the New Burnside Elementary School and attended her freshman and sophomore years at the high school. Her junior and senior years were completed at Vienna High School. All through high school, Beverly was involved in music. She assisted her music teacher (Robert McCall) in all the music activities at the New Burnside High School. She was a great pianist and assisted the student soloist, chorus, etc. in the New Burnside High School.

Beverly was a student of Mrs. P.W.A. Sherman of Harrisburg, IL, and was considered one of the best pianists in this part of the state. She received a scholarship from the Smith Memorial Music Foundation of the University of Illinois and graduated from the University of Illinois in 1944. In 1943, she attended SIU her junior year and assisted in the music department as a piano accompanist.

After graduation, her first teaching assignment was at the Anna Elementary School where she was supervisor of music for grades 1-8. Her next teaching assignment was at Sunset Hills for Girls in Kansas City, Missouri. She taught at this school for five years. During her tenure at this school, she was a representative and a board member of the Kansas City Philharmonic Orchestra in connection with children’s concerts, where two concerts were held each year. Her next teaching assignment was in 1952 at Horton Watkins High School in Ladue, Missouri. Beverly and a colleague, George Turmail, wrote all the pep songs, Alma Mater, and started all of the music activities for the school.

Beverly finished her teaching career in the suburbs of Northwest Chicago. She developed a boys and girls chorus. She developed a course called M.A.D. (Music, art, and drama). This one-semester course culminated in a stage performance by the students for their final grade. Her professional career ended in 1980.

In addition to her bachelor’s degree from the U of I and her one year of study at SIU, Beverly also received her master’s in music from Illinois State University. In 1980, she married Henry Ford Peebles, her high school sweetheart. Beverly died July 30,2001.

• Scholarship for music education students from towns within southern Illinois (south of I-64) with populations of 15,000 or less.