Teacher entered field after rearing daughter
11/2/2000Patricia G. White, a retired elementary teacher at Lincoln School, died Sunday in Heartland of Browning, Waterville, after a series of strokes. She was 71.
Born in Toledo, Mrs. White was a 1946 graduate of DeVilbiss High School and soon thereafter enrolled at the University of Toledo.
But she withdrew from the university when she married Robert White in 1948. Then she worked several years in the downtown offices of France Stone Co.
In 1969 when her daughter, Maureen, entered high school, Mrs. White returned to UT to complete her degree in education and entered teaching.
“She loved children and she loved to help people,'' Maureen Brown, her daughter, said. “She combined that by being a teacher. It was always challenging, but always rewarding.''
Initially, she was a substitute teacher in Toledo Public Schools, then a teacher in the lower primary grades at Lincoln, ending her career as a second-grade teacher.
She found satisfaction from her work in numerous ways, her daughter said. “To her, it was simply exciting to see a child master a new skill,” Ms. Brown said.
She left Lincoln in 1996 due to illness, retiring the following year.
An excellent seamstress, she did some of her best work in the fall, her daughter said.
“She made the most fabulous Halloween costumes, she said. “We saved them as collectibles.'' They included portrayals of Little Bo Peep, Mother Nature, a senorita, and a Medieval Princess.
Mrs. White also enjoyed baking and canning.
She was active in Girl Scouts and the McKinley School Parent Teacher Association. She was a volunteer at the Florence Crittenden Center.
Surviving are her husband, Robert; daughter, Maureen Brown; sister, Donna E. Schwenning, and two granddaughters.
Services will be at 1 p.m. Saturday in the Walker Funeral Home, where the body will be after 1 p.m. tomorrow.
The family requests tributes be to the Patricia White Scholarship Fund at Lincoln School.