Edna Holzaepfel Foley, Librarian

Miss Edna Holzaepfel, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick J. Holzaepfel, is pictured in her graduation dress in a photograph taken by W. A. Bishop in February, 1909.

In the summer following her graduation, Edna Holzaepfel became the Assistant Librarian at the Sandusky Library. By 1916, Miss Holzaepfel was the Librarian of the Sandusky Library. An article in the November 7, 1916 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal reported that after attending an annual library association meeting in Cincinnati, Edna Holzaepfel wanted to engage in an advertising campaign to urge Sanduskians to “appreciate the benefits to be derived by a more extensive and systematic use of the Carnegie library.” In February 1917, Miss Holzaepfel reported record breaking circulation numbers, having loaned out 10,480 books from the library in January. It was the largest circulation number in the history of the Sandusky Library to that time. Attendance records for the library in January 1917 broke records as well.

A Sandusky Register article in September of 1919 stated that Miss Edna Holzaepfel had moved to Buffalo, New York, where she was in charge of the branch libraries of that city’s libraries. By 1943, Edna had become Mrs. Timothy Foley, a veterinarian. Edna Holzaepfel Foley retired after thirty years of library service in Buffalo, New York in 1951. In the 1950’s, Dr. and Mrs. Foley moved to Sandusky, Ohio. Edna Foley was very active in the community. She was a member of the First Congregational United Church of Christ, Senior Women’s Fellowship Club, the Erie County Historical Society, Erie County Republican Women’s Club, and the American Library Association. Mrs. Edna Holzaepfel Foley passed away on April 18, 1969. She is buried in Oakland Cemetery next to her husband Timothy, who had died in 1965.