OBIT: Miriam (Rice) LEASE, 2007, native of Somerset County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Meyersdale Library Transcribed and proofread by Barry and Betty Christy. jhurl@meyersdalelibrary.org Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/somerset/ ----------------------------------------------- LEASE, Miriam 10/31/07 Daily American Miriam Lease, 89, died at her home in the Meadows, Danville, Oct. 27, 2007. She was born June 16, 1918, in Conneautville, a daughter of the late Edwin A. and Vida Koser Rice. She graduated from Arendtsville Vocations High School, Adams County, and from Penn State College, State College, later doing a post graduate at Penn State University. Her professional work consisted of being a matron in a girls home in York County, home economics supervisor for the Farm Security Agency in Lycoming, Clinton, Tioga and Potter counties, home economic extension representative in Somerset County for the Penn State College and home economics teacher for the Conemaugh School District, Cambria County. Miriam, and her husband owned and operated a dairy farm along Lincoln Highway near Stoystown until retirement. She and her husband then moved to Somerset and were kept busy volunteering at the hospital and for Meals on Wheels and traveling. Together they visited the 50 states and parts of Mexico and Canada. She was taught how to knit by her grandmother and when she was 8 years old, she taught 4-H members to knit during World War II, knitting sweaters with government supplied yarn for soldiers in Europe. She mailed her last sweater to a great-grandson in Anchorage, Alaska, in September 2007. She has passed the skill of knitting on to her granddaughters. She was a member of Mount Zion United Methodist Church, Catawissa. In addition to her parents, she is preceded in death by her husband, Fred H. Lease; two granddaughters, Freas, who was stillborn, and Darcy Oneal; a brother, Samuel C. Rice and his wife, Helen. She is survived by a son, Edwin F. Lease, and his wife, Judith, Catawissa; a daughter, Carol L. Freas, Kenai, Alaska; Mary R. Jones and her husband, Robert, Laudon, Tenn.; seven grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren, and a brother, David Rich, and his wife, Alice, Warren; and a sister, Sarah Fuss and her husband, John, Gettysburg. Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Mount Zion Methodist Church, Mount Zion Road, Catawissa, with her grandson, the Rev. James Lease and the Rev. John Erwin, her pastor, officiating. Burial will be Monday at Fairview Cemetery, Arendtsville. Friends will be received from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday at the Allen R. Horne Funeral Home, 193 McIntyre Road, Catawissa, and from noon until the time of the services Saturday at the church. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Meadows, 93 Tower Circle, Danville, PA 17821, or Mount Zion United Methodist Church, c/o Earl Bell, treasurer, 368 Orchard Sr. Catawissa, PA 17820.