Lois Bradshaw was born on a farm north of Burnside and attended the Pilot Grove Country school. She graduated from Carthage High School and Gem City Business College, then worked for a time at Moormans Feed, coming home to live with her parents in Durham.
Shortly after, she met and married Bill Bradshaw.
For 20 years she ran the Linotype machine at The Quill office.
She and Bill lived in Quincy for 13 years. She worked at the Quincy Clinic where she was head of the Medicare Department. Retiring in 1981 they moved back to La Harpe into the same house they had moved into in 1945.
She has two daughters, Clare Burr of Los Angeles and Sally Rasmussen of La Harpe, 7 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
She used to do a lot of sewing, knitting, and crocheting, but now spends her spare time reading, working crossword puzzles and working with the Historical Society friends at the museum.