November 30, 2006

OBITUARIES

Valeska B. Appleberry

Valeska B. Appleberry lived her almost 94 years with boundless enthusiasm, curiosity and a sense of adventure. She died peacefully, surrounded by family, on Nov. 18 at Friends Care Community.

Valeska was born Jan. 7, 1913, in New York, N.Y., to Fanny Granger Dow, an artist, and Gustave Louis Becker, a pianist. Valeska treasured her childhood. Though the family was not wealthy, “Father” bartered with fellow artists to provide his children with singing and dancing lessons. “Mother” encouraged their imaginations, took them to the theatre and museums, and allowed them to explore New York City on their own.

Valeska moved to Yellow Springs in 1931 to attend Antioch College, where she studied early childhood education and continued an independent lifestyle, occasionally wearing a toga and going barefoot around campus. She was a member of several clubs and committees and was outspoken on many issues of the time.

A photography club and work/study position with renowned Yellow Springs photographer Axel Bahnsen sparked a life-long love of the medium. Valeska provided publicity shots for Antioch College and later, at family gatherings, could be counted on to want “just one more” picture.

At the end of her freshman year, Valeska met Lynton Appleberry, a fellow Antiochian, who was about to graduate. Lynton was so taken with Valeska that he courted her for the remainder of her college years, regularly driving from his home in Detroit to visit her in Yellow Springs.

Lynton had made his intentions clear but Valeska didn’t feel ready to settle down, so after she graduated in 1937, she moved back to New York and became a researcher for Life magazine. Valeska recalled that time as “the year of my life when I was sort of a glamour girl.” There were parties and young men vying for her attention.

However, she ultimately realized that she missed Lynton and the higher intellectual quality of their discussions and activities, so she invited Lynton to visit her. He came to New York and took her to a planetarium show titled “Exploring the Universe.” After the program, Valeska told Lynton that she had realized that he was the one with whom she wanted to explore the universe. They became engaged that evening and were married on Oct. 23, 1938, in New York City. Valeska and Lynton wrote their own poetic ceremony, Valeska’s father composed a piano and violin romaza for the occasion, and Dr. Charles Francis Potter, a prominent Unitarian minister, presided at the service. At the time, writing your own ceremony was so unusual that it made newspapers throughout the nation.

Valeska returned with Lynton to Yellow Springs, where he was teaching a course on cooperatives in the sociology department at Antioch. After a year, they rented and furnished a large old house in Dayton and established their own housing co-op, which they ran successfully for four and a half years. It was a lively place with an eclectic group of residents.

After the births of Eric in 1941 and Lynne in 1943, Valeska and Lynton decided it was time to leave the co-op setting. Inspired by Ralph Borsodi, author of Flight from the City, founder of the School of Living and former co-op resident, they decided to try their hands at country living and rented a nineteenth-century one-room log cabin near Tipp City. It was difficult and rustic, but they enjoyed their country life, particularly gardening.

In 1944, the pair purchased a house and land south of Yellow Springs (adjacent to the Vale) from Ernest Morgan, owner of the Antioch Bookplate Company and a longtime friend of Lynton’s. For Valeska and Lynton, the homestead was a slice of heaven on earth, and it became their physical and spiritual home.

It wasn’t long before they were joined by their son Kim in the spring of 1945. A few years later, Lynton and Valeska returned to co-op management when, at the request of Antioch, they resuscitated the ailing Morgan House student co-op. Valeska then continued day-to-day management of the facility for several years while Lynton worked on the homestead.

In the late 1940s, Valeska started a weekly children’s radio show on station WIZE-AM out of Springfield. The “WIZE Kids” show was a huge hit with children, in part because children got to choose the program topics and participate on-air. Because Valeska insisted on welcoming children of all races, which was not done in those days, she ran into sponsorship problems and the show was cancelled.

Valeska gave birth to her son Brian in 1949, then her daughter Karen in 1953. Lynton started work as a linotypist at the Yellow Springs News and Valeska became the first female Encyclopedia Britannica salesperson in Ohio. But teaching children was her real passion, so she became certified as an elementary teacher and taught in Yellow Springs and other area schools.

As her teaching career progressed, Valeska worked backward through the elementary grades, always finding that she wished she had been able to reach her students earlier. Eventually, she studied the Montessori pre-school education system and the Montessori Nature School was established on the Yellow Springs homestead. The school’s program emphasized freedom within limits and interaction with the natural world — the meadows and woods around the school were both playground and classroom. Valeska considered the school to be the pinnacle of her teaching career. Many Yellow Springs children began their education in this idyllic school, with Valeska their free-spirited leader.

Valeska retired in 1982, when arthritis kept her from kneeling down to work with the children at their eye level. She continued to be active for many years, volunteering at the Senior Center and at Friends Care, shopping at garage sales, participating in activities around town and visiting with family.

After moving to Friends Care in 2002, Valeska delighted in working with the children in its Head Start program, documented construction projects with her camera, provided companionship to other residents, and tried to help them in whatever ways she could. She was an inspiration to many.

Valeska was predeceased by her parents; her husband, Lynton; her younger brother, Richard Quentin Becker; and her half-sister, Beatrice Becker Ward.

Valeska is survived by five children and their spouses, Eric and Pat of Ann Arbor, Mich., Valeska Lynne Lindner of Ft. Collins, Colo., Kim and Christine of Portland Ore., Brian and Kathy of Richmond, Vt., and Karen of Tyler, Texas; her fraternal twin brother, Don Verdi Becker of New York City; her niece and her spouse, Brenda and Michael Walker of Brooklyn, N.Y.; 11 grandchildren, 6 great-grandchildren and one grandniece.

A memorial service will be held Jan. 6, 2007, at 2 p.m., at the Glen Helen Building, Yellow Springs, Ohio.