The subject of this sketch was born in Mattituck, Long
Island, November 17, 1859, was brought to Newport in her early youth,
attended the public schools here and graduated at the head of her class
in 1877 from Rogers High School, being the first of her race so to do.
She received a medal for scholarship and graduated two years later from
the State Normal School in Providence.
Her ancestors had been long inhabitants of that section of
Long Island and her grandfather, Elymas Reeve, was a noted character
throughout the length and breadth of Long Island. His religious zeal,
his strength of character and his demeanor caused him to be liked bv all
races with whom he came in contact on the island.
Miss Silone, after graduation from the State Normal School,
went West and taught in Jefferson City, Mo. in 1881. She taught there
and elsewhere in the central west until 1889, when she was united in
marriage to Professor W. W. Yates of Kansas City. While successful as a
teacher, her chief contribution to her race has been her outstanding
work as an organizer and club woman and for the high standards she set
for the women of our group to follow.
She enjoyed the friendship and confidence of Colonel Thomas
W. Higginson, the late George T. Downing and many other men of that day
and generation who fought and contended for the rights of humanity, over
and against the rights of property. She died September 3,
1912.
