Mary “Lillian” VanBebber

April 21, 1908 – April 28, 1986

The funeral for Mary L. VanBebber, 78, Axtell, Kansas, who died April 28 at Community Memorial Hospital, was May 1 at the Landreth Thornburg Funeral Home, Axtell. The Rev. J. C. Kelley officiated and burial was in Rose Hill Cemetery, Axtell.

Mary Lillian VanBebber was the daughter of Francis Marion and lla Jeffrey VanBebber and was born in Perry, Okla., April 21, 1908.

She attended Whipple School through the eighth grade and graduated from Perry High School. She attended Central State University two years and received a BS degree from Oklahoma A&M in 1931. She received a master’s degree from the University of Maryland in 1954.

A speech reading therapist who herself had impaired hearing from a childhood disease, she was a reading therapist at Walter Reed Hospital, Washington. D. C., from 1946-1974, when she taught speech reading to veterans who had auditory impairments. She created textbooks and initiated new principles in the field of auditory sciences. Earlier in her teaching career, she taught speech reading in Oklahoma schools.

She moved to Axtell 10 years ago to care for an uncle, Percy Jeffrey.

Preceding her in death were her parents, four brothers and four sisters. Survivors are two brothers. Ralph VanBebber of Velma, Okla., and Earl VanBebber of Tracy, Calif.