Ethel Belle Stroupe

One of the last photos of Ethel with her Grand-daughter Jennie

Ethel Belle Stroupe was born February 29, 1920 in Asheville, NC to Vernon Sronce Stroupe and his wife, Jesse Grace Leatherwood Tompkins. Her childhood was spent in Asheville and visiting family in surrounding communities. After graduation from Lee Edwards High School in Asheville, she attended Asheville-Biltmore College (now UNC Asheville--where her love for genealogy began as a class assignment to trace physical traits within her family).  This passion for family history continued throughout her life).

When the United States entered World War II, Ethel (using the nickname Pat) volunteered for the Women’s Army Corps and was part of the first company to be sent overseas, spending two and a half years in North Africa and Italy.  She appeared in Movietone News, hand-washing her nylon stockings in her helmet and had a letter published in a collection of letters from military women overseas, With Love, Jane. During her time in Algiers, she worked in General Eisenhower’s headquarters and at the conclusion of the war, volunteered to stay overseas for an extra six months studying art history in Florence. After the war, she finished her degree at Asheville-Biltmore, married and moved north where she attended the Ohio State University, had one daughter, and finally graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in Art History.

After moving to California in 1956, she worked in medical records for San Mateo County and then as a social worker. She ended her career as a Social Work supervisor, doing family history in her free time. She retired to full-time genealogy in Laguna Niguel in 1980, where she was active in the DAR, serving as regent of the Patience Wright Chapter, Laguna Beach, in 2000.  She was quite proud when her granddaughter was a debutante at the DAR State Convention in 2003. Until the end of her life, all three generations were members of Patience Wright Chapter on the basis of her research.  She was also active in the Women’s Overseas League and in Colonial Dames and while never joining herself, had done the required research for her aunt to join the Mayflower Society, Magna Carta Dames, the Plantagenet Society, and other genealogy-based groups.

Ethel was one of the leading researchers, perhaps the foremost researcher and compiler of the Stroupe family of western North Carolina.  She was tireless in her research, and very thorough in her tracing down many branches of the descendants of Jacob Stroup Sr. (1724, MD – 1804, Lincoln Co., NC).  She shared her research freely with many for over four decades.

As happens so often in genealogical research, Ethel’s initial hypotheses about specific individuals would occasionally prove wrong, and when this happened, she made every effort to correct the mistakes.  She was sometimes criticized for these errors, unfairly in most instances, by those who saw only an earlier, incorrect version. As she wrote in 2000, “Same old problem: genealogy is never, ever, really correct or finished! New data always bring new revelations.”

Ethel died March 18, 2006 in Orange County, California at the age of 86 from complications of strokes that had made her last years difficult.  Per her wishes, she was buried in a simple military ceremony at Riverside National Cemetery.  She lived a long, productive life, and many of us are in her debt.  Her sharing continues today, as her records and photos have been passed on to Michael Stroupe of Rock Hill, South Carolina.  Mike is making these records available on his web pages on the Internet.

Lee Kucera, Ethel's daughter

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