Katherine Litsey Woosley Endowed Scholar Grant
Given by Jennie and Jeffrey Wenger
(Nancy) Katherine Litsey Woosley was born in 1906 in Grayson County, Kentucky, and grew up on working farms, where for the first 50 years of her life they had no running water or electricity. Like her mother before her, she chose education as her calling, becoming a teacher and spending decades serving students across central Kentucky. Beginning in the 1920s and continuing through the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, Katherine taught in a series of one-room schoolhouses.
In 1927, she married Golden Woosley, and together they raised four children. In her later career, she continued in education as a substitute teacher and expanded her service as a social worker, supporting families throughout the region with practical help and steady care.
Katherine believed deeply in the power of education. She championed her children’s education at every step and modeled lifelong learning herself, studying part-time for many years as a commuting student at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. With that same spirit, she would have been proud of the determination and promise represented by Rankin Scholars today.
Katherine is the grandmother of Jennie Wenger.