Local Legends: Keeper of the community

As a newspaper columnist and church secretary, Anna Estella “Stella” (Bruner) Hasty dedicated her life to supporting Bethel A.M.E. church and keeping record of the everyday lives of the people of Oxford’s Black community.

Hasty was born Nov. 29, 1876 in her parent’s house on College Corner Pike. Her father was the venerable Peter Bruner, a former slave, veteran of the United States Colored Troops during the American Civil War, and engineer for Oxford College. Her mother, Frances Aletha “Fannie” (Proctor) Bruner, was a member of one of the oldest Black families in Oxford.

Hasty spent her early life in Oxford Township before her family moved to the Village of Oxford. She first attended Oxford Township School District No. 5, but transferred to Oxford Public School with her family’s move and graduated with the Class of 1895.

She married John Wesley Hasty, a native of Pomeroy, Ohio but lifelong resident of Oxford, on Sept. 29, 1904 at the Bruner Family home. John’s first wife, Hattie (Ross) Hasty, had died on Jan. 26, 1898 of “paralysis of the brain,” likely a stroke, leaving John to raise their son, Russell Hasty. Hasty gave birth to two boys, Paul Lawrence and John Bruner Hasty, and her and John raised them along with their stepbrother.

Hasty spent most of her life in service to the Bethel A.M.E. Church. Her commitment to and respect for the church can be felt in the 1957 commemoration booklet for the church’s Centennial where she wrote, “This church is an inheritance given to us by our foreparents to hold, to love, to cherish, and to pass on from one generation to another.”

As the church secretary for Bethel A.M.E., Hasty kept the church running, performing this duty for 50 years. In addition to this, she was also the recording secretary for the United Council of Church Women.

Her activities with the church weren’t just limited to office work. She was also Bethel A.M.E.’s Sunday School superintendent for many years and was heavily involved with the church’s Missionary Society.

Outside of the church, Hasty was a charter member of the Ladies Improvement Club. She was listed as a homemaker on all of the censuses in which she appeared, except for in 1930 when she was working as a laundress. Her main hobby was collecting sales tax stamps for the church, which could be turned in to the state of Ohio in exchange for 3% of their value.

Hasty started writing for Oxford Press around 1937, shortly after Avis Cullen’s purchase of the newspaper. She took over from Ms. Lenore Barry, who had written the “News in Oxford’s Colored Circles” column for many years. Renamed to “Ms. Hasty’s Column,” Hasty’s articles appeared in the Oxford Press for 28 years up until her retirement in 1965. 

In her columns, Hasty kept track of all the comings and goings of the Oxford Black community, recording which families were hosting friends or relatives, the meeting schedules of nonprofit organizations and clubs, all those who were traveling and where they were going, a list of hospital patients and their conditions, and the never ending occurrences of church meetings, dinners and programs. 

Bob White, owner of the Oxford Press at the time, later described how Hasty walked Uptown to the newspaper office every Monday with her completed article until her later years when she was unable to do so. Then, she sent her brother-in-law, Earl T. Kelley, Uptown to drop off her articles instead. White also commented how even in her final two years of life, despite being retired, Hasty continued to call their office with news to consider publishing.

In addition to her work with the church and newspapers, Hasty also took care of John, who experienced a decade of illness before his death on Oct. 21, 1958 at age 88. Hasty died on June 13, 1967 at Phillip’s Nursing Home in College Corner. 

Upon her death, Oxford Press editor Bob White wrote about Hasty in her obituary, “Robert E. White, Jr., speaking for himself and former editor Ms. Cullen, commended her long devotion to duty in faithfully reporting the news for many years.” The Estella Hasty Women’s Missionary Society of Bethel A.M.E. was later renamed in her memory.

Brad Spurlock is the manager of the Smith Library of Regional History and Cummins Local History Room, Lane Libraries. A certified archivist, Brad has over a decade of experience working with local history, maintaining archival collections and collaborating on community history projects.