Esther WRIGHT

WRIGHT, Esther Jo

85, passed away on Monday, July 30th, 2020, in her home in Dayton, from pancreatic cancer. In hospice care for two months prior to her death, she died peacefully in her sleep.

Esther was preceded in death by her husband, James Curtis Wright (Jim) and her step-grandchild, Errol Zerkin. She is

lovingly remembered by her three children, Erin Wright,

Megan Wright-Hagan (Steve), and Chris Wright (Cathy); four grandchildren: Sam Kleingirnna, Natalie Wright, Kyra Ashcraft (Lenier), Daria Hinkle (Clancey), and two step-grandchildren Jeremy Miller, and Sasha Zerkin-Tricket (Chris) along with four great-grandchildren.

Esther was born in Eureka, Kansas, on February 26, 1935, to Loleta and Glenn Fuhlhage. She graduated from Wichita East High School and attended the University of Wichita. She

began her career in education in Wichita teaching gifted

children at the Christopher Rankin school. After moving to Dayton in 1965, she taught Learning Disabled students in the Mad River Township School District and earned a Master's

Degree.

She met Jim, the love of her life in November of 1954, was engaged by New Year's Eve, and married on February 12th, 1955, and, oh, what a 51-year ride it was! They were both members of St. George's Episcopal Church and Jim, the agnostic, drove her to services every Sunday, with few complaints, from 1965 till his passing in 2006. Gardening, book club,

volunteering at school, and the neighborhood "lunch bunch" kept Esther busy long into retirement and she was an avid supporter of the arts, attending symphonies, operas, and plays.

Special thank yous to Anna Clary, her home-health nurse from Graceworks; to Richard Carr, the most amazing attorney /friend; and especially to Kathy Knight, her compassionate and gifted caregiver who enabled Esther to live in her home until the end. Esther will be interred on the memorial hill by St. George's Episcopal Church following a service on June 26th, 2021, at 1PM.