Marta Pärna

Marta Pärna was born on December 1, 1867, in Rannu, Tartu County. She graduated from Tallinn Higher Girls' School with a home tutor qualification in 1887. She furthered her studies at the university in the field of history and linguistics.

She worked as a home tutor in Vyatka, the Crimea, the Caucasus, and Ukraine from 1889 to 1903, and as a German language teacher and assistant head at E. Levitski’s private gymnasium in Czarskoe Selo from 1903 to 1908.

In 1908, the Estonian-minded Valga city government invited Marta Pärna to become the directror of the girls' gymnasium. She is considered the first Estonian principal of a gymnasium in Estonia. She worked as the principal of Valga Girls' Gymnasium until 1932.

The school was both her workplace and residence. Marta Pärna also worked as a translator of fiction and popular science literature. She died in 1939 and, as the niece of Carl Robert Jakobson, was buried at the Jakobson family cemetery in Kurgja.