Vernon, Edith Goldston

Deaf at age 4 1/2 from scarlet fever and an operation for mastoid infection. Lost her mother as an infant; her father committed suicide when she was about 15. Lived on an Indian reservation, uneducated, with her father until age 10, when she went to the Oklahoma School for the Deaf. Upon graduation, attended Gallaudet College but dropped out after a year to marry Charles Hillior (also deaf). Worked in a rubber factory during WWII and put her husband through college on her earnings. However, he had an addictive personality and, after being brain-damaged from an opiate overdose, shot and killed himself. Meanwhile, Edith had attended a vocational school and learned printing, working in that field until Charles' death. Returned to Gallaudet College for another year and while there met and married her second husband, McCay Vernon (q.v.). Transferred to the University of Texas, then graduated Colorado College in 1958 as a laboratory technician. M.S. in microbiology from Loma Linda University and Medical College, 1965. Worked in original research on the genetics of bacteria in Chicago. Later, in Illiois, did nutrition research, and back at Loma Linda researched treatments for tuberculosis. Worked as a clinical microbiologist in CA and MD, becoming head of a hospital laboratory. Taught microbiology at Gallaudet College, 1979-1980, and had also taught in the Oklahoma and Arkansas schools for the deaf. Died from cancer.