Kathleen Walsh

Walsh, Kathleen, 105, died Tuesday, January 8, 2013. On May 29, 1907, when Kathleen Walsh was born in Medicine Lodge, Kansas, she was already a part of the teaching world. Her parents, James Martyn Walsh and Anna Elizabeth Smith Walsh, had moved from Tennessee to teach in rural Kansas. Following in their footsteps, Kathleen taught English for forty-four years, thirty-four at Allison Junior High in Wichita. In 1935 Kathleen and her father wrote the Plain English Handbook as a “guide to the English language.” When Kathleen retired from teaching in 1972, Jack Kennedy, the Eagle Education writer, wrote: “Today that book outsells all other English texts and is one of the biggest book successes of all time - even outdistancing McGufferys Reader.” Kathleen Walsh was a leader in state and national education, as president of the Kansas State Teachers Association, on both the Kansas and national education Board of Directors, and elected to the Kansas Teachers Hall of Fame. She was active also at the First Presbyterian Church, Symphony Women, Project Beauty, Music Theatre Guild, American Association of University Women, and Delta Kappa Gamma where she helped sponsor Coty College in Missouri. It has been her central mission to encourage young people to get a good education and become teachers. When Heartspring founded their new campus, she endowed the Learning Center to be named for Clyde Berger, a former student of her fathers. Berger was a young man with speech challenges that, without Walshs encouragement and assistance, might have been discouraged from acquiring an advanced education. Kathleen Walshs association with Wichita State University has been long and deep. She was a student at Fairmount College, and in 1926 campaigned with her sorority for the college to become a municipal university, now Wichita State University. She was elected to the Honor Five for her scholarship, and later became a member of the Society of 1895. In 1999 the University gave her the Founders Award for Outstanding Service. Several years ago Kathleen established three scholarships at the university, the Anna Kathleen Walsh Scholarship, the J. Martyn Walsh English Education Scholarship, and the Anna Elizabeth Walsh Humanities Scholarship. These scholars, along with the faculty and staff, have given Kathleen much joy by sharing their lives and accomplishments. Many of these graduates are now teaching children in Kansas and across the nation. Kathleen Walsh had little family, but a wealth of friends. On her one-hundredth birthday, her neighbor, Polly Dye held a party. Carol Hill was once her student and remained her long-time extended family. In a personal notebook Kathleen copied the words of Eleanor Farjean: “When love lights a candle, life cant blow it out.” A memorial service will be held on Saturday, January 12, 2013 at 10:00 A.M., in the Chapel of the First Presbyterian Church, 525 North Broadway. A coffee service will follow in the church parlor. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Anna Kathleen Walsh English Scholarship at Wichita State University or to the library at the First Presbyterian Church. Downing Lahey Mortuary East.