Newbranch, Harvey E. (1875-1959). Newspaper editor; Cather’s university classmate. Harvey Newbranch was born in Iowa; his family moved to Nebraska and in 1892 he entered the University of Nebraska, following Cather as editor of the Hesperian student newspaper and graduating in 1896. That same year he married classmate Evalena Rolofson; they had four daughters. In 1898 Newbranch began working for the Omaha, NE, World-Herald as its Lincoln correspondent. Subsequently he worked in Omaha as reporter, editorial writer, and finally editor beginning in 1910. In 1920 he won a Pulitzer Prize for his editorial condemning the mob that lynched an African American man. Cather kept in occasional touch with the Newbranches, and in 1929 her letter to Newbranch as editor about the demise of small town opera houses was published in the World-Herald’s diamond jubilee edition.

Newbranch, Evalena Pearl Rolofson (1875-1962) (“Eva”). Civic activist; Cather's college friend. Born in Missouri, daughter of Wilber and Katharine Dubravsky Rolofson, Evalena Rolofson grew up in Wilbur, NE, and Lincoln, NE. She graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1896, the same year she married Harvey Newbranch. They had four daughters, Katharine, Isabel, Evelyn, and Eleanor. She worked for the State Red Cross during World War I, was director of the Family Welfare Association for ten years, was on the Omaha Public Library board, and was a member of the Nebraska State Democratic committee. Both Cather and Rolofson were active in the Union Literary Society while in college, and both appeared in Louise Pound’s satirical play, Shakespeare Up to Date.