EMILY PHALEN AUSTIN ( Nov. 4, 1915 - Jan. 30, 2017 )

SPRING VALLEY, CA - Emily AUSTIN, age 101, died peacefully January 30, 2017. Born in Hiawatha, WV to Charles & Violette PHALEN, Emily also lived in Glenwood Park, WV and Bramwell, WV before moving to California in 1949. Funeral services will be held mid-March in Spring Valley, CA. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Sacred Heart Catholic Church (Bluefield), the Salvation Army, or your favorite charity. Published on March 5, 2017.

Dateline:Yr. 2012. Emily Phalen is 96 years old and lives with her family in California. She taught in the Bramwell Grade School during the 1940s. She is a WV native, born at home in Hiawatha, WV on Nov. 4, 1915. Emily was home-schooled by her Mother for 1st & 2nd grades, then to public schools in Hiawatha, Springton Junior High School, Matoaka High School, and then Concord College. She started the normal practice of teaching at Crane Creek Elementary while going to classes on weekends and summers. She is a class of '37 Concord College graduate. While she is not sure of the exact year, she moved to Bramwell around 1940 and taught there until 1949 when she and a younger sister drove to California and continued her teaching career.

After she left Bramwell in the 1949, she moved to San Diego, California. She then took a side trip to Tokyo, Japan for a couple of years to teach at the American school . After returning from teaching in Japan, Emily taught in California local schools, retiring in 1976. When her husband retired in 1979 they moved to Elizabethton, Tennessee and lived there until her husband's death in 1996. She then returned to California to be closer to her children and grandchildren. Her grandkids call her Emmo!

After she moved back to California in 1996, Emily taught art at her daughter's grade school down the street; teaching at the age of 93. Her family revealed that she now spends most of her time working crosswords, and working virtual jigsaw puzzles, word games and playing "Words With Friends" on her iPad! She still plays bridge once a week with friends.

For those 1940s Bramwell High School students and others who had the priviledge of being taught by Emily hold wonderful memories of her teaching days at BHS. She is remembered and loved by all her students. Her life's career in teaching along with so many of the Bramwell School faculty has been an inspiration for all of those students that they taught over the one hundred years that the school operated.

EMILY PHALEN AUSTIN - FIND-A-GRAVE