Maxine Willhite

Funeral services for Maxine Willhite, 80, Lawrence, will be at 10 a.m. today at First Baptist Church in Ottawa. Inurnment will be at Highland Cemetery in Ottawa.Mrs. Willhite died Friday, July 20, 2007, at Pioneer Ridge Nursing Center in Lawrence.She was born Sept. 25, 1926, in Burlingame, the daughter of Vernie Francis and Iva Maxine Patterson Carmichael.Mrs. Willhite graduated from Burlingame High School in 1944 and Ottawa University in 1949 with a degree in elementary education. She moved from Burlingame to Ottawa in 1949.She was a teacher. She taught a year each at Lane High School and Liberty School, a one-room school, and then worked for the Ottawa school district, where she taught three years at Lincoln Elementary School and 24 years at Hawthorne Elementary School. She retired in 1990.Mrs. Willhite was a member of First Baptist Church, where she participated in choir, Mission Possible Circle, Sunday school and various committees. She also was a member of Friends and Fun, Sewing Club, Kansas Association of Retired School Personnel and Kansas National Education Association. She volunteered at Hope House for many years.She married Merle B. Willhite on July 17, 1949, in Burlingame. He died Sept. 8, 1995.Mrs. Willhite also was preceded in death by her parents and a sister, Evelyn Joy Denny.Survivors include four daughters, Patricia Coffey and husband Shaun, Lawrence, Marcheta Pearson and husband Richard, Olathe, Barbara Stransky and husband Frank, Bonner Springs, and Jean Anne Leigh and husband Tom, Kirkwood, Mo.; and 13 grandchildren, Christopher, Patrick and Elisa Maxine Coffey, Dane, Mallory Faye and Russell Pearson, Tyler, Tanner, Tiffany Lynn and Tucker Stransky, and Nathan, Caleb and Desmond Leigh.Visitation was Monday at the church.The family suggests memorials to the church, Hope House or Ottawa University, sent in care of Dengel & Son Mortuary, 235 S. Hickory, Ottawa 66067.E-mail condolences may be sent at dengelmortuary@sbcglobal.net.