With eyes always on God and His goodness and with a faith the size of a mountain, Laura Richards traveled halfway across the globe to save the lives of over 250 Chinese babies.
The hardships of such a mission were not unfamiliar to this young woman from Shelby County, whose rather harsh upbringing surely formed her character. Losing her mother at nine years old, she adapted to a demanding stepmother who required her to work at 4:30 a.m. for chores before the 1 1/2 mile walk to her one-room school. Rather than resentment, Laura felt her character strengthened so that after graduating from Sidney High School in 1911 with her best friend Lois Lenski, Laura went on to graduate from Minneapolis General Hospital in 1915, and then attended Bible Seminary in New York where she decided to “trust the Lord only for my support.” That mantra was the bedrock of her existence for the remainder of her life under very difficult circumstances.
During WWI, she served as a Red Cross nurse in France and then worked as a missionary nurse in China for the Presbyterian Mission. There her true life’s mission began as she established an orphanage for castaway Chinese children. Because of losing the Presbyterian Church’s financial support, she faced abject poverty, famine, yet another world war with total political chaos in China, and abandonment by family and even by some friends. Yet her absolute faith in God and her mission kept her on the path to save more than 250 children in her Canaan Home Orphanage. Only in 1951, at age 58, when she was physically ousted by the Communist Chinese, did she leave her children. Before that she had endured unimaginable hardships and privations including imprisonment by invading Japanese.
Never abandoning her mantra, she returned to the US to care for the sick, dying, and troubled. Even at 65 years old, she continued her mission sailing to the Philippines to evangelize children. After a life of service to God and others, Laura went to her final reward at age 88. Her determination to live by faith is spite of great danger and uncertainty qualifies Laura Richards as one of our persons of impact. A book about her amazing life is available for sale at the Ross Historical Center.