Bessie Anderson served as a local preacher or supply pastor in the Northwest Kansas Conference. A handwritten list in the archives, by an unknown hand, lists her as having served in Beverly, Kansas, from 1898 through 1901. According to this document, during the years 1900 and 1901, she is listed under the name Bessie A. Stanley. In 1902 she was dropped from the Northwest Kansas Conference roll at her request. Articles from the Lincoln, Kansas, newspaper at that time describe a Bessie Anderson who occasionally filled in at various churches when the pulpit was empty. She is referred to as a popular and gifted writer and speaker and is also mentioned as having given orations of her own composition at alumni gatherings, WCTU meetings, etc. In 1899 or 1900, she married Arthur Jehu Stanley (1874-1967). They had six children, five of whom lived to adulthood. In 1904, Mrs. Stanley entered a magazine contest in which writers were asked to describe “Success” in 100 words or less. Mrs. Stanley won the first prize of $250 and her submission (usually printed in the form of a poem) received national exposure; however, in the ensuing decades, it was often misattributed to other authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson or Robert Louis Stevenson. Caroline Elizabeth “Bessie” Anderson Stanley, born in Newton, Iowa, in 1879, died in Kansas City, Kansas, on October 2, 1952. She was buried in Lincoln, Kansas.

Note written by Sarah St. John