Adelaide Everett Bloxton was born in 1886 in Driver, Nansemond County, Virginia; part of modern Suffolk City. She was the eldest daughter of eight children born to Elisha Lee and Mary Sipe Everett. After graduation from high school, she earned degrees from the College of William and Mary and the Teachers College at Columbia University. She completed additional studies at the University of Tennessee and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Her husband, William Moncure Ashby Bloxton, was a professor of English at the College of William and Mary. She taught in an area grade school, serving as a critic teacher of home economics and general science. The Bloxtons raised two children, Nell Stuart Bloxton and N.C. Bloxton Orrick. She was later employed at the Home Life School of Appomattox, Virginia. She also served as city supervisor and teacher of home economics in Danville, Virginia.
In 1928, Bloxton came to East Carolina Teachers College to serve as head of the Department of Home Economics. She played a major role in transforming home economics from a small department to one of the largest departments on campus at the time of her death. She also acted as the Dean of Women during the summer term of 1930. As a member of the college faculty, she served on many committees including the Policies Committee, the Committee for Alumni Homecoming Day, the Building Committee, and the Social Relations Committee.
An active participant in her church and various educational organizations, she held memberships in the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the American Association of University Women, the Virginia Academy of Science, and the national and state educational and home economics associations.
On the evening on March 19, 1950, Bloxton fell ill. A doctor was summoned to the Home Management House on campus where she lived. Despite all efforts, she died of a heart attack shortly after his arrival. In 1952, construction began on a new home economics lab and classroom building. On February 26, 1953 the Adelaide E. Bloxton House was dedicated to her memory to train women in the domestic sciences.
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Citation Information
Title: Adelaide Everett Bloxton
Author: John A. Tucker, PhD
Date of Publication: 6/25/2019