Mary Meyer

MEMORIAL SERVICE:  Saturday, December 15, 2012 at 10:30 A.M.

First United Methodist Church, Belleville, Kansas

FAMILY INURNMENT:  Riley Cemetery, Riley, Kansas

MEMORIALS TO:  Methodist Church, Belleville Public Library, or Meadowlark Hospice

SIGNING OF REGISTER:  Thursday, Friday 9am to 5pm

Mary Sue (Abell) Meyer, 88, of Belleville, Kansas died early Monday morning December 10, 2012 at her home in Belleville, Kansas with her daughters at her side. She was born April 29, 1924, in Riley, Kansas, the only child of Harold Quantic Abell and Frances Mary (Robison) Abell, both teachers. Her early years were spent in Riley, Kirwin, and Olsburg, KS, until the sudden death of her mother in 1936. In 1942, she graduated from Stockdale High School, with her father as principal. After completing course work at Kansas State University, she moved to Kansas City to work at Lake City Ordinance as a secretary for munitions engineers during World War II. She also spent a year at the University Of Kansas School Of Nursing, leaving early to care for her ailing father. At the end of the war, she married Arthur Hopkins Meyer, also of Riley; World War II Army Air Corps pilot turned Southwestern Bell Telephone systems analyst. They settled first in Kansas City, Kansas, and then in Gladstone, Missouri, where they raised two daughters, and where Sue taught for thirteen years in a private preschool called Little Folks School. In 1968, they moved from Gladstone to Topeka, Kansas, and then to St. Louis, Missouri, where she worked in Admissions at Deaconess Hospital for fifteen years. Sue and Art embraced, and shared with their grandchildren, the multiple cultural opportunities St. Louis had to offer. And she took care of her father there, in his later years. In 1984, the couple moved to Belleville, Kansas, where her husband farmed with their son-in-law, and she worked in Admissions at Republic County Hospital. With the First United Methodist as their church home, Sue also contributed her energies to the Starlight Study Club, P.E.O., the Cultural Arts Center, Meals on Wheels, Commodities Distribution, the Belleville Public Library, and the lunch program at Belleville East Elementary. She will be remembered for her genuine interest in people, her loyalty to family, her support of the arts, her gift with children, and her bright smile. Preceded in death by her parents and her husband, she is survived by her sister-in-law Dorothy (William) Nelligan of Rockville, Maryland; daughters Kathleen (Steven) Dunback of rural Belleville, Patricia (Preston) Meyer-Williams of Salina; grandchildren Kimberly (Patrick) Bentrott, Idaho Springs, CO; Christopher (Candace) Dunback, Eudora, KS; Melissa Williams-Meyer, Salina, KS; great-grandchildren Conor, Caden, Valancia, Solomon, and Samara; as well as nieces, nephews, cousins, and a host of friends. As she chose cremation, her memorial service will be held Saturday, December 15, 2012, at 10:30 am at the First United Methodist Church, Belleville. Inurnment at Riley Cemetery, Riley, Kansas, will follow the service. The family suggests memorials to the First United Methodist Church of Belleville, the Belleville Public Library, or Meadowlark Hospice of Clay Center.