It was the late 1930s when teenager Luana (Boner) Sever decided she wanted to study botany at Washington State College. The problem: she lived on the south side of Chicago and didn’t have much money. But she had plenty of gumption.
Sever got on her bicycle and rode 2,000 miles from Chicago to Pullman to start school.
“She packed up what she could and started off on the bike from Chicago,” said Pat Helland, Sever’s daughter. “If she ran out of money she would stop in a town and do some odd jobs. She asked farmers if she could sleep in their fields or their barns along the way.”
Her father wasn’t happy. At one point he contacted police and asked them to find her and send her home.
“The police did talk to her, and she said, ‘I’m just riding my bike to college,’” Helland said. “That’s the power of a woman who is determined and has a goal and a purpose.”
Sever was interviewed by the Spokane Chronicle after she arrived. She told the reporter that she’d commuted long distances by bicycle in Chicago, riding 30 miles a day to work. She added, “I’ve never tackled a trip like this, though, and I would never do it again.”
In Pullman she met the parents of her future husband, Buel Sever, who helped her find lodging and a job. She graduated with a bachelor of science in botany in 1940, then worked in a seed factory and oil refinery while Buel attended medical school in Illinois.
The couple lived for most of their married life in University Place, near Tacoma. Luana Sever went on to become an expert weaver. Then in her 60s she took up hot-air ballooning, becoming an FAA-certified balloon pilot and instructor, and opening a balloon repair business in her basement.
The Severs frequently visited Pullman and maintained their ties to their alma mater. Buel’s brother Elmer “Shorty” Sever served as custodian of the university’s athletic grounds for 42 years.
Luana Sever died in 2012 at the age of 93. Her husband Buel died two years after that.
Said Helland, “She just loved learning. She was really ahead of her time.”
As the nation celebrates Women’s History Month, WSU also is celebrating a half century of the university’s Women*s Center.
