Mershimer

Harriet Regester Brinton Mershimer, 82, of Slippery Rock Township, passed away Tuesday at the Butler VNA Inpatient Hospice after a long illness.

She was born July 15, 1928, in New Castle Hospital to Harry Levi Brinton and Ruth Margaret Regester Brinton.

She married Donald Lee Mershimer, of Slippery Rock, on April 17, 1948. He survives her.

She graduated from New Castle High School in January 1947, attended Indiana (Pa.) University from 1947 to 1948 and graduated from Slippery Rock University in June 1962 with a bachelor's degree in elementary education.

She taught in the Slippery Rock schools from September 1962 through June 1979. In 1962, at the end of the one-room school house era, she taught 4th through 6th grades in the basement of the United Methodist Church in Slippery Rock. When the Slippery Rock Elementary School opened in 1963, she taught 5th and 6th grades. She helped to pioneer the team teaching concept in that elementary school. She transferred to the middle school when it opened, where she taught math.

She was an avid reader who enjoyed reading to her students and encouraged them to love reading.

She was a member of the Shenango Valley Chapter 33 of the Order of Eastern Star and was active in the Order of Rainbow Girls. She was a worthy adviser in the New Castle Chapter and was mother adviser and president of the Board of Advisors for the Grove City Chapter 96 in the 1960s.

She was active in the Shamrock Women's Golf League from 1963 until 2001. She enjoyed walking and other outdoor exercise. Throughout her life she enjoyed caring for and raising many kinds of dogs, particularly boxer dogs.

After her retirement in 1979, she volunteered for the Slippery Rock Feed My Sheep Food Pantry and the Grove City Meals on Wheels.

From 1993 until March 2008, she lived in Bay Indies in Venice, Fla., from October through March of each year.

Her interests included sewing, fine needlework, knitting, crocheting, smocking and tatting. She was an expert at all of these and used her skills to teach others and to produce goods for many charitable causes. In her final time of ill health, she knitted hats for needy children.

She was a member of the Daughters of the American Colonists, the D.A.R., and The Brinton Association of America.

She is survived by her husband, Donald, of Slippery Rock; a daughter, Karen Bellinger, of Indianapolis, Ind.; granddaughters, Sarah Bellinger and Laura and her husband, Brian, McIntire; and great-grandchildren, Chloe Bauer and Braden McIntire, of Indianapolis.

<B>MERSHIMER</B> — Friends of Harriet Regester Brinton Mershimer, who died Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2010, will be received at the <B>Smith Funeral Home</B>, 421 New Castle St., Slippery Rock, on Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. and on Saturday, from 1 p.m. until time of service at 2 p.m. The Rev. Dr. John C. Peterson, a retired pastor of New Wilmington, will preside at the service Saturday at 2 p.m. at the funeral home. Interment will follow at Slippery Rock Cemetery, Slippery Rock Township.Memorial contributions may be made to the Butler VNA Hospice, which provided her with excellent care during the past 21 months or to the Feed My Sheep Food Pantry of Slippery Rock.