Corbett services

Mrs. Corbett died Tuesday, April 9, 2002, at Brandon Woods Retirement Community.

She was born Feb. 3, 1909, in Heber Springs, Ark., the daughter of Benjamin and Jeanette (Gatton) Allen. She had lived in Lawrence since 1959, moving from Ottawa.

She received her bachelor’s degree in home economics from Oklahoma State University and her master’s degree in special education from Kansas University. She had also studied in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, England, Holland and France.

Mrs. Corbett was a retired special education teacher in Lawrence public schools. She had taught in the district for 25 years at Cordley, South Junior High, Central Junior High and Lawrence High schools. She was the first certified special education teacher in the area and helped develop the programs in USD 497. Before coming to Lawrence, she taught for 10 years in Ottawa. Her career included teaching in a one-room schoolhouse near Ottawa. She also had formerly taught English to the Choctaw Indians in Oklahoma.

She was a longtime member of First Baptist Church.

She married Kenneth C. Corbett in September 1932 in Ottawa. He died May 4, 1979.

Survivors include two sons, Kenneth Corbett, Chestertown, Md., and Emery Corbett, Topeka; a grandson; and three great-grandchildren.

The family will receive friends from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday at Warren-McElwain Mortuary.

The family suggests memorials to First Baptist Church or to the Rachel A. Corbett Scholarship Fund for Special Education for the Lawrence Schools Foundation, sent in care of the mortuary.