THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 1, 1996 TAG: 9609010030
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
DATELINE: ASHLAND LENGTH: 44 lines
Mrs. Sarah Thomas Kesler, 76, wife of the Rev. R. Harris Kesler, died Aug. 31, 1996. Mrs. Kesler was a native of Oxford, N.C., and was the daughter of the late Dr. William Nelson Thomas and Estelle Bullock Thomas. She was educated in the public schools of Oxford and attended the Marjorie Webster School in Washington, D.C. She was a graduate of Greensboro College, Greensboro, N.C. She was married to Dr. Kesler on Sept. 10, 1946. After a stay in New York while her husband was in graduate school, she and Dr. Kesler returned to Virginia where he was a clergy member of the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church. In each of the communities where she lived Mrs. Kesler was actively involved in the religious, civic and social life of the area. Dr. Kesler's appointments took them to the following church and communities in Virginia: The McKenney Charge, McKenney, Va.; Main Street Church, Emporia; Duncan Memorial, Ashland; Main Street Church, Suffolk; Asbury Church, Harrisonburg; Epworth Church, Norfolk; Main Street Church, Waynesboro; and First Church, Salem.
In 1984, Dr. Kesler retired and he and Mrs. Kesler moved to Ashland to a home they had purchased there. At the time of her death, Mrs. Kesler was a member of Duncan Memorial United Methodist Church and the United Methodist Women, the Woman's Club of Ashland, The Ashland Garden Club, the Hanover Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Scotchtown Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Jamestowne Society. She and her husband were vitally interested in Randolph-Macon College and were active in many of its affairs.
In addition to her husband, Mrs. Kesler is survived by five nieces, Sallie Thomas Carmichael of Gainesville, Ga., Douglas Thomas Odom of Chapel Hill, N.C., Mary Thomas Firestone of Lafayette, Ind., Sandra Kesler Walker of Virginia Beach, and Barbara Kesler Dudley of Arvada, Colo. Also surviving are her sister-in-law, Rachel Poe Thomas of Oxford, and an aunt, Mrs. Charles Goff of Virginia Beach, and several great-nieces and nephews and a number of cousins,
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Monday in Duncan Memorial United Methodist Church, Ashland. The family suggests that memorial take the form of gifts to Randolph-Macon College or a charity of choice. Interment of ashes will be in Elmwood Cemetery, Oxford, N.C. The family will receive friends at the Kesler Home in Ashland. The Reid Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
KEYWORDS: DEATH OBITUARY by CNB