MOUNT VERNON — Esther McCulley Weller passed away Jan. 15, 2009, at the Rose Garden Nursing Home in Mount Vernon.
She was born in Mount Vernon on Nov. 22, 1907, to George and Blanche (Watkins) McCulley and had been a lifetime resident of Knox County. She graduated from Fredericktown High School in 1925 and was a 1929 graduate of Hiram College. She taught at Bonar High School, a one-room schoolhouse, from 1930-1932. She married Lester Weller, moved to Centerburg and had three sons. She returned to teaching in 1945, teaching at Sparta Highland for two years, then moving to Fredericktown and teaching in Mansfield. In 1951, she began teaching in Fredericktown until retiring in 1974. Her favorite grade level was fourth grade.
Some area students who attended Bonar School are Art Cassell and his sister Jean, Harold Rush, Rosemary Weller Wilson, Charles Gleason, Dorothy Durieux Antil; some who attended Sparta High School are Edna Bockover Shaffer, Carroll Hubbell, Nathan Boyd, and Martha Jean Keller Perkins whose mother taught Esther at Caywood one-room school.
She was an ardent supporter of the Mohican Outdoor School from its beginning. She was also a supporter of the Fredericktown Community Center. She was an outdoor person who until age 95 raised and canned her own vegetables and meat, picked apples, tended her chickens, sold eggs, mowed her two large yards and drove her car to nearby towns.
She was baptized into Christ at the Palmyra Church of Christ, Aug. 11, 1918. She was a 50-year member of Ann Hill Chapter, Order of Eastern Star, in Fredericktown.
She is survived by her son, Carmon (Betty) Weller, granddaughter, Tracie, grandsons, Jeff (Marj) and Judd Weller, seven great-grandchildren, Ashley, Miranda, Ross, Leah, Amber, Summer and Holly (Andy) Taynor, and one great-great-grandchild, Ivorie, all of Fredericktown.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Lester; a son, Chandler, who was killed by lightning in 1943; a son, Carroll, who was killed in an automobile accident in 1959.
An Eastern Star Service will be held on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. at the Snyder Funeral Home in Fredericktown, where friends may call from 7 to 9 p.m. A funeral service will be held at the funeral home on Monday at 11 a.m. with Mr. Troy Northrop officiating. Burial will follow in Forest Cemetery in Fredericktown.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Mohican Outdoor, 5370 Bunker Hill Road, Butler, OH 44822; or to the Fredericktown Community Center, P.O. Box 86, Fredericktown, OH 43019. This obituary and guest registry are online at www.snyderfuneralhomes.com.
The Snyder Funeral Home of Fredericktown is honored to serve the family of Esther McCulley Weller.