Mabel was born on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1902, on a farm in Bates County, MO, the second of five children. Her parents were John Franklin Van Druff and Louvena Ison Van Druff. She went through the elementary grades at a one-room school house her father helped build. She attended high school in Butler, MO, before moving with her family in 1916 to Kansas City, MO, where she graduated from Manual High School. She was a graduate of Kansas City Teachers College and taught third and fourth grades at Morse Elementary School in Kansas City, MO. In 1925, she married George E. Butler, a high school classmate and a former owner of English Brothers Machinery Company, who died in 1988 after 62 years of marriage. She was a former member of the Bas Bleu Study Club, the Women's City Club, and Memorial Christian Church in Kansas City. She was an active participant in the Parent-Teachers Association at her children's schools, having served as PTA president at D.M. Pinkerton Elementary School and Southeast High School. She is survived by two sons, George E. Butler Jr. and his wife, Vera Lea, of Overland Park, KS and Kenneth V. Butler and his wife, Jean, of Leawood, KS; seven grandchildren, Janet Kerner and husband, William, Judith Sullivan and husband, Ronald, Kenneth G. Butler and wife, Karen, Jeffrey Butler, John Butler, William Butler, and Anne B. Rice and husband, Eric; seven great-grandchildren; and her sister, Lucille Elliott of Gladstone, MO, all of whom will cherish vivid memories of her generous independence and courageous life and the wisdom and love she shared with family and friends.
Mabel was born on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1902, on a farm in Bates County, MO, the second of five children. Her parents were John Franklin Van Druff and Louvena Ison Van Druff. She went through the elementary grades at a one-room school house her father helped build. She attended high school in Butler, MO, before moving with her family in 1916 to Kansas City, MO, where she graduated from Manual High School. She was a graduate of Kansas City Teachers College and taught third and fourth grades at Morse Elementary School in Kansas City, MO. In 1925, she married George E. Butler, a high school classmate and a former owner of English Brothers Machinery Company, who died in 1988 after 62 years of marriage. She was a former member of the Bas Bleu Study Club, the Women's City Club, and Memorial Christian Church in Kansas City. She was an active participant in the Parent-Teachers Association at her children's schools, having served as PTA president at D.M. Pinkerton Elementary School and Southeast High School. She is survived by two sons, George E. Butler Jr. and his wife, Vera Lea, of Overland Park, KS and Kenneth V. Butler and his wife, Jean, of Leawood, KS; seven grandchildren, Janet Kerner and husband, William, Judith Sullivan and husband, Ronald, Kenneth G. Butler and wife, Karen, Jeffrey Butler, John Butler, William Butler, and Anne B. Rice and husband, Eric; seven great-grandchildren; and her sister, Lucille Elliott of Gladstone, MO, all of whom will cherish vivid memories of her generous independence and courageous life and the wisdom and love she shared with family and friends.
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