Pasley

Ruth Frances Kemper Pasley, 92, died Sept. 17, 2008, in Springfield, Va., following an extended illness.

Born March 24, 1916, in Butler, she was a daughter of the late Ernest F. and Margaret Ann Lewis Kemper.

Ruth excelled in everything she did. For example, she was the bridge player everyone wanted for a partner; and she anchored her bowling team past her 80th birthday. But she wanted to be remembered for her career teaching the elementary grades.

She graduated from Slippery Rock University, then a teachers' college, in 1939 and began teaching in Butler County at Stamm School in Evans City, Portersville School and at the Mitchell School. Then, following her husband on military assignments, she taught in six states outside of Pennsylvania, as well as at the NATO Air Base at Eureux, France, where she supervised the GED testing program for the base education office.

She spent an inordinate amount of time, generally as an unpaid volunteer, tutoring children with special needs. At one point, she went so far as tutoring a group of French children who were interested in American-style English. She retired in Fairfax County, Va., in 1976 after 27 years in the classroom.

Surviving are her husband, Col. John V. "Vic" Pasley U.S. Air Force retired; her son, John R. Pasley of San Diego, Calif.; and a brother, Ernest F. Kemper of Butler.