Community memorial service held for Estes, teacher who lost battle with breast cancer

By Rick Rogers / Of The Press Staff

A community service in memory of Kitty Estes, a sixth grade teacher at Steadley Elementary School who passed away after a long battle with breast cancer, was held Wednesday afternoon at the CHS auditorium.

After the opening prayer, members of the Carthage R-9 DARE Choir alumni performed "The Greatest Love of All" under the direction of Sally Acheson, Rhonda Gibson, Liz Norwood and Michelle Rosenthal.

Marinell Pennell, principal at Steadley Elementary School, cited Psalm 91 and was followed by a performance of "Dona Nobis Pacem" or "Let There Be Peace" by the Carthage Junior High School ninth grade band, under the direction of Fran Wallain.

Lowell Catron, a physical education teacher at Steadley Elementary School, shared a special story with the large crowd in attendance about Estes. (See accompanying story on Catron's speech.)

Laura Weaver, with Fairview Elementary School, then sang "It Is Well With My Soul" and was followed by a sermon entitled, "What We Have Learned" by Father Steven Wilson of Grace Episcopal Church.

"The hopeless question is always why," Wilson told the crowd. "Why is this happening to me? Why does this happen to good people? But I think that any teacher with her salt will always guide her student away from the question why, and to the question what. What can I learn from this, and what really matters in my life?

"And Kitty was a good teacher. The question today is not, why? It is what?"

Wilson said he and Kitty struggled with the answers to whys and what's up until the end of her life.

"I know that she is a fine Christian, and a great teacher and a loving family member," Wilson said. "I know that just hours before she was going to the hospital for the last time she was still addressing notes to friends.

"I have watched her teach and love at Steadley when she felt like staying in bed and when her hair was falling out. It mattered to her that they see her fight.

"I watched her reach out to her family and worry about how it was going to affect them if she was sick on a particular day and tried desperately to not die on the wrong day. To not die until her sons were old enough to grow into young men.

"That's what Kitty was all about. That is what I have learned, what I hope we have all learned, from Kitty."

The ceremony ended with memories and music and a slide presentation and closed with a prayer.