Gentry county Missouri, Obituaries: Irene Wave (Neal) Groom Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm Submitted by: Don Raymond The Albany Ledger, Gentry County Missouri, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2002, page 16: Irene Wave (Neal) Groom, 86, died August 16, 2002, at Colonial Manor, Albany. The daughter of the late Lloyd Efton and Minnie Ellen (Walker) Neal Austin, she was born May 21, 1916, near Gentry. On September 1, 1934, she married Frank Lafayette Groom at Stanberry. He preceded her in death. A member of the Stanberry Church of God (Seventh Day), she attended rural schools in Gentry County, was a 1933 graduate of Stanberry High School, Northwest Missouri State College graduate in 1952, Maryville, and earned a master's of science degree in Library Science from Emporia State Univeristy, Emporia, KS. She also completed courses at the post-master's degree level from University of Missouri, Columbia, San Francisco, CA., and Emporia State University, and had been the guest speaker at many of the workships. She had taught in rural Gentry County schools, was principal and junior high teacher at Gentry, had served as supervising teacher at Horace Mann Training School, Maryville; worked as the director of Gentry County Library, Stanberry, had developed the Book Mobile Service for Gentry County, and had been librarian and elementary principal at Stanberry, worked for the State Department of Education as a writing member to develop a library handbook for librarians in the state of Missouri, Jefferson City, and had retired in 1982 as the high school librarian of Albany R-III school. She was a member of Alpha Omicron Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma, former member of the National Library Association and the Missouri Library Association, Business and Professional Women's Club, Albany, former president of the Alumni at Northwest Missouri State University and Audiovisual Organization, Albany Planning and Zoning Committee, and was nominated as an outstanding Teacher in Northwest district of Missouri, was named Woman of the Year by the Albany Business and Professional Women's Club, received the Freedom Foundation Valley Forge Award of Philadelphia, Pa. as outstanding teacher in promoting the Democratic Way of Life in the Public Schools of the United States. Also preceding her in death was a brother, Cleo Everett Neal. Survivors: a brother, Lloyd J. Neal, Lee's Summit; nieces and nephews; great nieces and nephews; cousins and many friends. Funeral services will be August 21, 2002, under the direction of Roberson- Polley Chapel, Albany, with burial at High Ridge Cemetery, Stanberry.