Weston, Alice Victoria Henry and William Julius, Sr.

Alice Weston was born in 1882 in Perry, NY, the daughter of Henry and Clara E. Henry Thomas. Her father had been an escaped slave from Mississippi, her mother the sister of distinguished Judge Edward W. Henry (1871-1946) in Philadelphia.

Alice Weston was married to Dr. William Julius Weston (1875-1936) from Henderson, KY; they met while students at Howard University. The couple moved to Kentucky, where Dr. Weston practiced medicine at Hickman, Henderson, and Paducah.

Alice completed her college degree at Kentucky State University and taught at Lincoln High School in Paducah for 20 years. She was one of the most influential teachers in the city and state. She taught history and was the first teacher in Kentucky to develop and teach a formal course in African American history that was required of all students at Lincoln High.

Alice served in several leadership positions within her church and led general church activities held in Paducah. She was an active member of the Kentucky Negro Educational Association and served as president of the Kentucky State Association of Colored Women, established in 1903.

Alice and William Weston had three children, all born in Kentucky: Clara Elizabeth (b. 1904), Alice Victoria (b. 1915), and William Julius, Jr. (1906-1945); William, a police officer in Washington, D.C., was killed in the line of duty. In 1948, Alice Weston was buried in Paducah, KY.

For more see C. G. Woodson, "Alice Victoria Weston and her family," Negro History Bulletin, vol. 11, issue 9, pp. 195-198; William Julius Weston in A Historical, Biographical and Statistical Souvenir, by D. S. Lamb [available full-text at Google Books].