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The Roaring Spring community is mourning the loss of one of its oldest members.
Ethel White, 106, of Roaring Spring, died Dec. 29 at the Lutheran Home at Hollidaysburg with family by her side.
White worked for People's Natural Gas of Altoona before she was hired as a clerk/aide at Roaring Spring Elementary in 1969. She retired from the Spring Cove School District in June 1983 after 13.5 years.
School records show that White was preceded in death by most of her work peers, according to Spring Cove Superintendent Betsy Baker, who was a student at Roaring Spring Elementary in the late 1970s.
White was a playground aide and a cafeteria aide, Baker said. She was responsible for collecting the cafeteria tickets and tallying the money.
Baker said she remembers White as a "petite lady who was always smiling."
"She was strict, but sweet, so as students, we liked and respected her," Baker said.
White's daughter, Janet Bailey of East Freedom, became her caregiver in 2019.
Bailey said White endured and persevered through hard times, including growing up during the Great Depression.
"(That was) back when you had to learn to do without and make do with what you had," she said.
Being away from her husband and son while they were overseas was a difficult circumstance for White to endure, Bailey said.
Her husband, Charles R. White, served in World War II, and her son, D. Rex White, served in the Vietnam War.
During a four-year period from 2002-06, her husband, her son-in-law and her son all died.
"If you can learn to persevere and you have a willing heart, sometimes the road is rocky, but I can't imagine all that my mother has seen in her 106 years," Bailey said. "I can't imagine it."
She said her mother's secret to a long and happy life was that she didn't drink, she didn't smoke and she attended church regularly.
White was a member of St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Roaring Spring.
The Rev. Amanda McCaffery said she has known White, who was a fairly new member of St. Luke's Lutheran Church, for about two years.
"Her faith was very important to her," McCaffery said, adding her relationship with White was mostly spent at her house, where they often shared Holy Communion together.
"When I got to see her before Christmas, she was in decline, but we were able to share communion one final time," she said.
White had been a previous Den Mother for Troop 57, a former Girl Scout leader, a former member of the Murray-Appleman American Legion Post 147 Ladies Auxiliary and the Red Hat Society of the Cove.
Kathie Gasper of Hollidaysburg was able to visit White multiple times in the final month of her life through a class she took to become a future volunteer for the Lutheran Home. White was Gasper's Girl Scout leader when she was young.
"We had a history from the past," Gasper said. "In spite of her age, she was pretty good up until right close to the end. We could talk about things from the past, and she seemed to remember."
According to the Red Hat Society's website, its aim is to encourage women to have fun in their quest to get the most out of life. White did that through enjoying crafts, playing her organ and working in her garden.
"She loved to be outside," Bailey said. "I'd say she spent more time outside than she did inside."
Bailey said she was "privileged" and "thankful" that she had the opportunity to spend time with her mother while taking care of her throughout the last five years.
She said White was her mentor from a young age, as she watched her mother care for her grandmother before she died.
Bailey also followed in her mother's footsteps through life by becoming a Girl Scout leader and by participating in her church ministry.
"When she was in the hospital before she passed, I said, 'Mom, I just can't thank you enough. You were my mentor.' I couldn't have done all of those things without my mom walking the trail first."
Friends will be received from 11 a.m. until the 1 p.m. funeral service today at St. Luke's Lutheran Church, Roaring Spring, the Rev. Amanda McCaffery and Pastor Tim Bartholomew officiating. Interment will be made at Greenlawn Cemetery.
Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.