In Memoriam Alice Kathryn Wilson

Alice Kathryn Washabaugh Wilson was born on May 4, 1904, in North Strabane Township, Pa. She was the youngest of three daughters born into the home of Jeremiah S. and Georgia Taggart Washabaugh. Her father was a teacher and a hardware store businessman in Canonsburg, Pa.

Alice attended the Canonsburg schools and graduated from high school in 1924. For two years she attended Geneva College where her mother had also attended. Following her lifelong interest in art, Alice completed the last two years of college as an art major at Edinboro State Teachers College, where she graduated in 1929.

Her parents realized the importance of teaching their three daughters of spiritual things. Alice was baptized and made her profession of faith in Jesus Christ as a youth in their church near Canonsburg.

After teaching art for five years at a Carnegie, Pa., high school, Alice and Clarence Wilson were married in Pittsburgh, Pa., on July 26, 1934 . They were married by her great uncle, a retired Reformed Presbyterian pastor. After Clarence had completed his dental training, they journeyed west to Stafford, Kan., where they could be a part of a Reformed Presbyterian congregation. Alice was a homemaker and assisted her young dentist husband where needed.

During their years in Stafford, daughters Georgia and Virginia were born. The loyalty of their mother and father to the small Covenanter congregation set before their daughters a love for Christ and His people that remains to this day.

In 1972, Clarence and Alice retired from dental practice. They enjoyed spending the winters in Arizona, always seeking out and actively supporting the church.

After 48 years of marriage, Clarence died. In 1994, Alice moved from Stafford to the Presbyterian Manor in Sterling, Kan. For the past 13 years, the Sterling RPC, her family, and the loving staff of the Manor have been her great joy.

At the time of Alice’s 100th birthday, her family surrounded her and sang with her the great promise of Scripture in Psalm 23: “Though I walk in death’s dark vale, yet will I fear no ill; for Thou art with me, and Thy rod and staff me comfort still.” On Apr. 2, just one month shy of her 103rd birthday, Alice did not wake from her night’s sleep until she was in heaven where she could continue singing Psalm 23: “Goodness and mercy all my life shall surely follow me; and in God’s house for evermore my dwelling place shall be.”

Alice was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, and her two sisters. She is survived by her daughters: Georgia (Bob) McFarland and Virginia (Gene) List; seven grandchildren: Richard Mc- Farland, Allison McFarland, Nancy Mc- Collum, Susan Gayle, Jeffrey List, Byron List, Matthew List; and 18 great-grandchildren.

—Submitted by her family and friends at the Sterling, Kan., RPC