Leila D. Pate, 88, Washington, died at 3:26 p.m. Wednesday, August 2, 1995, at the Loogootee Nursing Center.

The funeral will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Poindexter-Hall-McClure Funeral Home in Washington with Rev. Doug Wallace officiating. Interment will be at a later date in the Walnut Hill Cemetery, Petersburg. Friends may call from 11 a.m. to time of service Saturday at the funeral home.

She was born March 25, 1907 in Liberty, Indiana, to John and Verna (Leonard) Dunbar. She married Charles Pate Dec. 31, 1934, and he died in 1970.

She graduated from Indiana Central College with a bachelor's degree in 1929 and from Indiana University with a master's degree in 1933.

She taught at Odon Elementary School from 1933 to 1958 and at Washington Community Schools from 1959 to 1973, when she retired. She was head of the English Department at Washington High School. She had the reputation among WHS students as being the toughest English teacher, challenging them to be the best they could be. Many a student learned the meaning of adverbs, adjectives, and other grammatical structures from her sentence diagramming exercises.

She was a member of Otterbein United Methodist Church and past president of the Daviess County Gray Ladies.

Surviving are one foster son, James A. Pate, Evansville; five grandchildren and three great grandchildren. She is the last of her family. (Aug. 2, 1995)

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From the 1970 & 1971 WHS Yearbooks: Leila Pate; Speech, English, Head of English Department.

Indiana Central College A.B.  Indiana University M.A.