"Eva-Roberta-Coles"[January 8,1880-December 8,1902]

She was born in Charlottesville,Virginia.Eva was one of  the young women who were fortunate enough to attend Hartshorn Memorial College in Richmond,which had been founded in 1883 as the world's first college for African American females.(Spelman College in Atlanta did not become a college until 1924,and Bennett College in North Carolina was co-educational until 1926).In 1892 Hartshorn gave the first Bachelor's Degree ever conferred at an African American female college:the recipients of the Bachelor of  Science Degrees were:Mary Moore Booze (of  Buchanan,Virginia);Harriet Amanda Miller (Charlottesville);and Dixie Emma Williams (Milan Tennessee).The first classes were held in the basement of Ebenezer Baptist Church,there the college moved to its campus at the northwest corner of Leigh & Lombardy Streets(site of the present day Maggie Walker Governor's School).There it took both day and boarding students and offered its young ladies a solid academic curriculum based on that of Wellesley College,and a close-knit family atmosphere that stressed Christian life and values,and community service.


On February 11,1899,Eva was among the Harshorn students who walked the one block north to the present site of Virginia Union University,which had been newly founded as a men's institution and was having its groundbreaking ceremony.It was there that she may have met Clinton Caldwell Boone,who was studying for the Baptist ministry,and developed a friendship that would blossom into love.


Eva graduated in May of 1899,and returned to teach in her home town.Clinton finished  at Virginia Union the following year.On January 16th,1901,Eva & Clinton were married and had decided to dedicate themselves to mission work among the people of Africa.They were sponsored by the American Baptist Missionary Union and the Lott Carey Foreign Mission  Convention.In May of that year they arrived at Palaballa in what was then the Congo Free State (now the Republic of the Congo).There Eva & Clinton labored heroically and unselfishly,and endured heart-rending hardships and sorrow,including the loss of their baby.Eva's sweet and caring nature and quiet courage won her the love and respect of the Bunu."She ran the kindergarten for village children;occasionally gave medical treatment,and organized a sewing circle for the women.In the face of initial resistance by the women themselves,and by local tradition,which did not properly regard sewing as an appropriate occupation for women,she quietly persevered and,much to the amazement of all,had enlisted a membership of over forty.


When Eva fell gravely ill from the bite of a worm or snake and grew weaker from the poison she remained a tower of strength and comfort to both the villagers and Clinton.Even with with her last words she tried to console him in his sorrow.When she died the village women held a vigil around their house and Clinton clasping her husband.