September 14, 2006

OBITUARIES

Mary Ann T. Bebko

Mary Ann T. Bebko died unexpectedly on her 69th birthday, Aug. 29.

She was born to Chester A. and Ruthena W. Tudbury in Cleveland, Ohio.

Mary Ann graduated from Antioch College in 1961 with a bachelors in psychology. She started her involvement in community activities in 1961 with the League of Women Voters. During her life, she was involved in many organizations in the village, county and the Miami Valley. She was chair of the Greene County Crisis Center and was an immediate responder when the 1974 tornado ravaged Xenia and the surrounding area.

For 35 years or so, Mary Ann was Ms. Welfare in this community. Sarah Adams tapped Mary Ann to fill her shoes as she was getting older, and at first Mary Ann felt uncomfortable filling this role. Mrs. Adams gave Mary Ann a bushel of ripe apples from the Adams orchard, and the checkbook. Together they went to visit Miss Myrtle Brown. Sarah and Myrtle dictated a list of names of possibly needy people, and they told Mary Ann that these people had been given her name. This led to a lifetime of helping people in the village. As times changed, she became adept at making certain that people here had access to all forms of assistance. She stretched the $500 from Community Council and the many other gifts she was handed around Christmas time. She made certain that needs were met, but not without some tough love at times.

Mary Ann loved the library. She believed that the library was one institution that was a benefit to every resident, even if they never set foot in it. It was a place where every person could gain knowledge, enjoyment and beauty. She pestered the Village to fix the steps and handrails and she saw that they had been renovated and improved.

She also felt very close to the Yellow Springs Senior Center. She served on many committees and helped as she was able. Even years ago, she felt that seniors needed support to deal with modern times, modern pressures and the changing world. She also advocated for the handicapped entrance to their building.

Finally, Mary Ann was very loyal to her family. She had the greatest part in raising her four children. She said that without the help of the community, raising productive children even in this village was an overwhelming task.

She was preceded in death by her parents and her sister, Martha Hamill.

She leaves behind her husband of 47 years, William (Bill); daughters and sons-in-law, Anne Bebko and Richard Doucet of Putney, Vt., Sara and Patrick Beltran, of Winchester, Va.; sons and daughters-in-law, Benjamin and Shonda, of Detroit, Mich., and Mark and Lisa of Fayetteville, N.C.; grandchildren, Elise and Christopher Doucet, Maria, Angela and Susan Beltran, Natasha, Benjamin and Natalie Anne Bebko and Mia Bebko; a sister, Frances Hunter of Bucksport, Maine, and several nephews.

The funeral mass was held at St. Paul Catholic Church and interment will be in the St. Paul Cemetery in the future. Remembrances can be directed to The Emergency Welfare Committee, c/o Community Council, P.O. Box 274, Y.S. Senior Citizens Center, 227 Xenia Ave. or the Tree Committee of Y.S., P.O. Box 122.

Virginia Steele

Virginia Steele, formerly of Santa Rosa and Berkeley, Calif., died Saturday, Sept. 9, at Friends Care Community in Yellow Springs. She was 83.

She was born in Alderson, W.Va., the seventh of eight children of Robert and Mamie Beckett Steele. She received a bachelor of science degree from the University of Pittsburgh and a master of Library Science from the University of California-Berkeley and taught many years in the Berkeley Public Schools.

In 1964, responding to her friend Robert Moses’s call for volunteers to join the Freedom Summer project to register disenfranchised Black voters in Mississippi, she and two other volunteers drove her VW bus from California to Oxford, Ohio, for several days of non-violence training. One of her passengers, who became a lifelong friend until his death, was Mario Savio, who later was a leader of the U.C. Free Speech Movement. They left for Mississippi shortly after the murder of civil rights workers Cheney, Schwerner and Goodman.

As the only librarian volunteer, she was assigned the responsibility of creating “Freedom Libraries” from the thousands of books shipped to Black communities from northern donors. (African Americans in Mississippi were barred from public libraries.) Black children eagerly helped in packing and transporting the books to stores, barbershops, service stations and other public places. These young helpers dubbed Steele’s VW “The Freedom Bus.”

In 1974 she purchased an abandoned mountain farm adjacent to the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia and spent the summers there writing and enjoying local events. She encouraged the development of, participated in and subsequently became a generous benefactor of High Rocks, a year-round leadership development program, located on her farm, for rural high school girls. Its summer outdoor program is named Camp Steele in her honor.

She is survived by her sister, Mary M. Morgan, of Yellow Springs, four nieces, one nephew and many Quaker friends. As requested by Virginia, her remains have been given to the Wright State University Anatomical Gift Program. Memorial gifts can be directed to American Friends Service Committee, 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 19102, or High Rocks, HC 64, Box 438B, Hillsboro, W.Va. 24946.

Pamela K. Stamper

Pamela K. Stamper of Dayton died at her home Friday, Sept. 1, after an extended illness. She was 56.

Pam was born and raised in Boone-ville, Ky. She attended Eastern Kentucky University, graduated from Wright State University School of Nursing and was a registered nurse for over 20 years.

She is survived by her husband of the past 37 years, George W. Stamper; her parents, Charles and Alma Kilburn of Berea, Ky.; two daughters and a son-in-law, Marsha and Chris Moss, and Karen Stamper, all of Huber Heights; six grandchildren, Phillip, Corey, Noah, Victor, Valerie and Michael; two sisters, Louann Robinson of Florence, Ky., and Susan Kilburn of Berea, Ky.; and numerous other family, friends and co-workers at Friends Care Community in Yellow Springs.

A memorial service will be held at Friends Care, 150 East Herman Street, on Thursday, Sept. 14, at 2:30 p.m. Chaplain Linda Rose will officiate.