Obituaries

Mayme Ruth Price Vest

Photo of Mayme Ruth Price Vest
Mayme Ruth Price Vest passed away at her home on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012, from complications of several strokes over the past few months. She was born on Aug. 26, 1924, to the late Penn G. and Frankie Ruth Price in the Whitsontown community in Franklin County, north of Mulberry, Ark. Mayme was the last of her generation of Prices, preceded in death by her siblings, Eleanor, Mildred, Dorothy, and Paul. As a longtime area educator, she had a lifelong passion for teaching, inspired by some of her childhood teachers. After graduating from Mulberry High School in 1943 and one summer at the College of the Ozarks, she started her teaching career at White Point School, near where she was raised. In March 1944, she married Clelland Vest and moved to Branch, and later that year, had her first teaching job there. While continuing to teach, she completed night, summer, and correspondence college courses and graduated from Arkansas Tech in 1961. For 39 years, she taught various grade levels in the Branch, County Line, and Paris school systems before retiring in 1983. After retiring, she took up painting and completed many landscape and floral paintings which were her favorites. She also began writing and published books of her life, her family and poems expressing her faith. She also had a passion for recording history and published several books of the history of local communities, schools and churches. For a few years she had a weekly column in the local paper, "From My Window," expressing her musings and other items of local interest. She and her husband, Clelland, spent many pleasant hours sitting in front of that window. Mayme valued relationships. She valued her relationship with God, her family, her students and her neighbors. She touched and influenced many lives through these relationships. In addition to her parents and siblings, she was preceded in death by her loving husband, Clelland, in 1996. She is survived by sons, Jim (Sherry) of Miramar Beach, Fla., and Jerry (Kim) of Rogers, Ark.; grandchildren, Kelly (Tommy) Wyatt, John (Anna) Vest, Amy Vest, Colby Gibson, Kressa (Blake) Schuett, and Alli Vest; great-grandchildren, Emry Wyatt, Eastyn Wyatt, Nora Schuett, and Noah Vest; sisters-in-law Gelene Price and Mazell Vest; and many loving nieces and nephews. Many thanks to Kathy Sampley and Tammy Hunter, her caretakers for the past four years. The family is very grateful for their compassionate service. In Mayme's words: Life God gave me a bonus- past three-score and ten- It was still short- like a vapor. Life passes swiftly- just a glimpse at the beauty of God's world! Live deliberately- to absorb the gifts of God- Realizing the value of eternal joys! Dwell on simple things- slow down and see what's near you. Don't spend time longing for great things! You may already possess them- health, love, assurance and salvation. God gives the best! Visitation will be held at Smith Mortuary, Charleston, Ark., on Friday, Sept. 7, 2012, from 6 to 8 p.m. Services will be held at the Branch Baptist Church on Saturday, Sept. 8 at 10 a.m. with internment at Garden of Memories Cemetery under the direction of Smith Mortuary. Memorials in her honor may be made to Branch Baptist Church, Lottie Moon Fund, Branch Baptist Church, P.O. Box 128, Branch AR 72928.

Published September 7, 2012

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