Lela Tracy was born February 8, 1897 at Jewell, Iowa, to Josh and Mary Stringer. She was educated in the Iowa Falls schools and taught country school near Williams, Iowa, for one year. She worked for several years at Kennedy & Gardner’s Department Store in Iowa Falls. On March 26, 1919, she married Ernest Tracy at Iowa Falls. The couple farmed in Franklin County for many years. Mrs. Tracy held the second longest membership at the First Congregational Church in Iowa Falls. In 1985, their only child, Robert, a 1942 Ellsworth graduate established this endowed scholarship in his mother’s memory for a student interested in Human Services. Ernest Tracy passed away in 1969 and Lela on December 2, 1985.