NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Danville Teacher's Secret Marriage Revealed At Death (1921)

from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, February 17, 1921 – page 1, column 2:

DEATH OF SCHOOL TEACHER REVEALS THAT SHE WAS WIFE
Mrs. Clifford Handy Known Here As Miss Iris Velma Johnston

Mrs. Clifford Handy or, as she was known in Danville, where she was a teacher in the Mattie A. Keeney building, Miss Iris Velma Johnston, died at the home of her husband’s parents in Indianapolis, Thursday night at 8:30. The cause of death was septicemia with acute myocarditis as a contributing factor. The funeral was Saturday morning from an undertaking parlor in Indianapolis. The body was taken to Kentland for burial. Teachers of the Danville schools attended the services, bearing an appropriate floral offering.

Mrs. Handy was 22 years ten months and eighteen days old. In that brief span of life was encompassed the hope, the ambition, the love of many years.

Her charming personality had deeply impressed those whom she had met since coming to Danville last fall to take a place in the schools. No one suspected that she was married – and indeed it is not known here when she was married. It was noted that she did not mingle in social circles as other young people and that she did not enter fully into the life of the community. On Friday, February 4, she went to Indianapolis to spend the weekend. The first of the week, word came that she was too ill to return to her school work. Thursday night she died.

She would soon have become a mother. And thus the radiance of a bright life went out. She will be kindly remembered in Danville.