Elementary teacher had a love of learning

6/13/2007

Alvetta Moore, an elementary school teacher for nearly 25 years who filled her days with family, creative, and community pursuits, died Monday - the day before her 68th birthday - in Hospice of Northwest Ohio, South Detroit Avenue, from complications of glioblastoma, a type of brain tumor.

She was diagnosed in March, 2006, while she and her husband, John, vacationed in Florida.

"We knew her time was limited, so we tried to do all we could do," said her husband, vice chairman of the Owens Community College board of trustees and a retired Bowling Green State University administrator and bank executive.

Mrs. Moore, of Springfield Township, threw an old-fashioned pajama party with a 1950s theme, to which 35 women friends traveled from around the country.

"She never came up on the teary side of death," Mr. Moore said. "She said, 'This is fate. This is what's going to happen. There are no regrets. This just happened to me.'•"

Mrs. Moore retired in 1996 from Burroughs Elementary, where she'd taught first through fifth grades during her career.

"What made her so good as a teacher was she loved learning herself," her daughter, Audrey Madyun, said.

Mrs. Moore's husband said: "It was simply because she loved the art of teaching, and it was an art."

Decades after leaving her classroom, students hailed her in malls or stopped by her table when she dined out. They invited her to the big events in their lives, from weddings to baby showers.

Born in Evergreen, Ala., Mrs. Moore grew up in Toledo. She attended the former St. Benedict School and was a graduate of Notre Dame Academy. She later was a secretary, but wanted to help others through teaching. She enrolled at the University of Toledo and went "on a part-time, full-time, however-we-could-afford-it basis, and she didn't stop until she had her master's," her husband said.

She was a past president of Charms Inc. and was queen mother of the Kind, Intelligent, Savvy Sisters chapter of the Red Hat Society. She was a member of the Toledo alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

She was skilled in crafts and took care of household repairs. She learned to be her family's seamstress, of necessity early on, even sewing her husband's neckties.

For years, she and Diane Flaggs celebrated the anniversary of their meeting on Aug. 15, 1951, with dinner or a movie or a trip.

"We never were too busy for each other, no matter what went on, good or bad," Ms. Flaggs said.

Surviving are her husband, John C. Moore, whom she married Nov. 5, 1955; son, Howard Moore; daughter, Audrey Madyun; parents, Mary and Samuel Howard; stepson, Kevin Braswell; stepbrother, Lonzie Greene; eight grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

Wake services will be at 5 p.m. Friday in the Dale-Riggs Funeral Home, where the body will be after 3 p.m. Friday. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday in St. Joan of Arc Church, of which she was a member.

The family suggests tributes to the Cathy Y. Moore Scholarship Fund in care of the Community Foundation of Toledo or to the Hospice of Northwest Ohio.