Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 31, 1994 TAG: 9501030054
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Pearl Branch Fears died Christmas Day at her daughter's house. She was 92.
Even after her retirement in 1970 after 42 years at Lucy Addison High School, Fears remained dedicated to her calling, working for another five years as a teacher for the homebound.
She spent her retirement doing what she loved - traveling and helping people through volunteer work.
``At 87 or 86, she went on a cruise to Alaska,'' said her goddaughter, Elizabeth Hairston.
Fears also worked for the League of Older Americans and volunteered for Meals on Wheels - ``basically any kind of volunteer work,'' said her daughter, Nancy Fears Branch. She was a member of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church for more than 75 years, serving as Sunday school teacher, superintendent, choir member, organist and church elder.
The retired English and drama teacher was appointed to the Governor's Board for the Aging by former Gov. Charles Robb and was invited to the White House along with other senior citizens.
She married, and was widowed, twice. After her second husband died and she was in middle age, Fears was determined to become a parent. In the 1950s, she became the first single parent in Roanoke to adopt a child, according to her daughter.
Branch said Fears also cared for more than 10 foster children and opened her home to student nurses and student teachers, among other guests.
``She would put other people before herself, especially younger people,'' Branch said. ``She wanted to make sure they knew the right standards and morals. ... She was an excellent example; she lived a good life and a productive life.''
Greta Evans, community services director at WSLS (Channel 10), remembers Fears as the judge of an oratorical contest when Evans was in elementary school. Evans' dramatic interpretation of a speech that was supposed to be delivered somberly may have lost her the competition, but it won her an admirer.
``She came over to me afterward and said, `I can't wait for you to go to high school; I have so much work for you to do,''' Evans recalled.
Evans went on to star in high school productions under Fears' tutelage and became a performer after graduating. She now writes and performs her own works.
``She opened a door to a larger place,'' Evans said of her dramatics teacher. ``Now, one of the places I love to be is in front of an audience. ... She was just a good rooter, because sometimes you'd have doubts you could do it.''
As part of a WSLS series, Evans taped a 30-second spot honoring Fears as an important mentor in her life. Sadly, though, Evans doesn't think her teacher knew about the TV spot, which is still airing. Fears spent her last years in Hampton with her daughter.
Delois Broady, who had Fears as a teacher in the 1940s and whose daughter also was a student of Fears', remembers her senior year play in Fears' dramatics class.
``It was `Nine Girls,''' she said. ``I thoroughly enjoyed that.''
She recalled Fears, who was a fellow member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, as ``gentle in her manner, ... a well-known figure in the community.''
Complications of aging had kept her ill for the past five years, Hairston said, but Fears celebrated Christmas morning with her family and died around 2 p.m.
At her 11 a.m. funeral service today, members of the Lucy Addison Class of 1961 - a class Fears advised - will serve as flower bearers and casket bearers.
by CNB