HUTCHERSON

Viola Mae Hutcherson, age 93, a resident of Fort Scott, Kans., died Sunday, April 20, 2008, at the Fort Scott Medicalodge. She was born September 12, 1914, in Bourbon County, Kans., the daughter of Ralph Hutcherson and Mary Harper Hutcherson. She attended grade school in rural Bourbon County and High School and Junior College in Fort Scott. She received her BS and MS degrees from Pittsburg State University. She did additional graduate work at the University of Colorado, University of Missouri and University of Kansas. Her college major and teaching field was mathematics. Her forty years of teaching consisted of four years in the grades of Bourbon County, three years in the rural high school at Mahaska, Kansas, five years in the Bonner Springs High School, then twenty-eight years in Kansas City, Kans., with ten years at the Northwest Junior High and the last eighteen years at the Wyandotte High School. She was an honorary life member of the Kansas National Educators Association, a member of the Half Century Club of the Pittsburg State Alumni Association, Vice President and Program Chairman of the Kansas Retired Teachers Association, a member of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society in Kansas City, Kans. She was also a fifty year member of the Olive Chapter #13 Order of Eastern Star, the Fort Scott United Methodist Church and a past member of the Bonner Springs Rotary Club. Viola was also a volunteer of the United Methodist Churches of Bourbon County to help operate a booth at the Farmers Market in order to benefit the Beacon. Viola will be remembered for her gentle ways and sweet personality.

Survivors include five cousins, Roy Harper, Devon, Kans., John Blair, Tulsa, Okla., Dorothy Franz and Mildred Jennings, both of Fort Scott and Mary Stoughton, Mapleton, Kans. She was preceded in death by her parents and a brother, Stuart Hutcherson who was killed during World War II.

Rev. Paul Babcock will conduct funeral services at 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 23, 2008, at the Cheney Witt Memorial Chapel. Burial will follow in the Centerville Cemetery. Memorials are suggested to the First United Methodist Church and may be left in care of the Cheney Witt Chapel, 201 S. Main, Fort Scott, KS 66701.