John E. Rodabough Papers

Collection

Identifier: MSS-493

Staff Only

Scope and Content

Papers of historian John E. Rodabough (1942-1982), contain photographs, scrapbooks, maps, city directories, newspaper clippings, genealogical data, personal correspondence, memorabilia, and research material pertaining to Monroe County, Mississippi and St. Louis, Missouri. The collection also includes Rodabough's thesis "A History of the Negroes of Aberdeen and Monroe County, Mississippi, 1790-1916," and a draft of his book "Frenchtown, a history of St. Louis from 1803 to 1969".

Dates

1819 - 1984

Biographical Note

John Edd Rodabough, son of Edward Darvin Rodabough and Ona Mae Dye was born on June 3, 1942 in Aberdeen, Mississippi. He was a graduate of Mississippi State University, where he received a B.S. degree in 1963 and the M.A. degree in 1964, both in history. At the time of his death Rodabough was working toward a doctoral degree in history at MSU.

From 1964-1979 Rodabough taught English, history, and literature at Webster Groves High School in St. Louis. He resigned, in 1979, to devote full time to research and writing. The Aberdeen Examiner printed a number of his articles on Monroe County history. In 1974, the Aberdeen Artist's Guild included his historical sketch of the community in their Aberdeen Coloring Book. Rodabough completed Frenchtown in 1980 and had begun his doctoral dissertation on steamboating.

Rodabough died in 1982 in St. Louis, Missouri and is buried in St. Louis's Bellefontaine Cemetary.