Phyllis Alberta Keister Semple

SEMPLE PHYLLIS ALBERTA KEISTER
87, of Sewickley, Pennsylvania and Delray Beach, Florida, died peacefully in Delray Beach, Sunday, January 18, 2009. She was the daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Albert Solomon Fraser Keister, born in May 1921, in Moundsville, West Virginia, in the shadow of the great Grave Creek Mound there. The Keisters came from Scottdale, Pennsylvania, but Mrs. Semple grew up in the East End of Pittsburgh on Kinsman Road. She attended the Linden School, Miss Thurston's School and graduated from Pennsylvania College for Women with a B. A. in 1942. She married Harton Singer Semple in May 1944. They had five children. One son, Harton Singer Semple, Jr., and three daughters, Carol Semple Thompson, Cherry Semple White and Heather Hollyday Semple survive her, as well as seven grandchildren, William Harton Foster, Anna Edwards Foster, Sarah Semple Foster, Hester Hollyday Seifert, Fraser McClure Seifert, Harton Singer Semple, III and Ian Laird Semple. She is predeceased by her husband and a daughter, Fraser Semple Foster. Mrs. Semple was a whirlwind in her long life. Family, friends and colleagues struggled to keep up with her energetic interest in community, history, music and sport. She was the consummate organizer and moved from one worthy project to another. She loved the rich history of the Sewickley Valley and Western Pennsylvania. She came from a coal family and married into a steel family, so was well acquainted with and justifiably proud of the region's industrial past. She was a founding member of the Sewickley Valley Historical Society and on the board of the Western Pennsylvania Historical Society. She loved her farm in Sewickley Heights, called Rockledge, and kept it whole, maintaining a farming tradition begun at the site in the 1870s. She kept company with antiquarians and was constantly poking around in the dustbins of history to add material to her excellent historical library and photo collection. A favorite local organization in which she participated was the Query Club, founded to contemplate matters intellectual in the 1860s and still going strong. The community in which she lived benefitted from her participation in Valley Care and the Child Health Association, where she was formerly President. She was active in the Little Garden Club of Sewickley, the Garden Club of Allegheny County and the Phipps Conservatory. She was the Sewickley Herald Woman of the Year in 1992. She played the piano heartily and at one point played the harp professionally. Her love of music came from her mother, Ethel Keister, a talented musician herself, who founded the Opera Workshop and was deeply involved in the Civic Light Opera and the Pittsburgh Symphony. Phyllis Semple was on the Board of the Pittsburgh Symphony and was a Director of both the Civic Light Opera and the Opera Workshop. Sport was her passion. She became involved with horses and the Sewickley Hunt in the late 1930s and eventually was Master of Foxhounds, passing on her love of the chase to her children. She kept horses for seventy years. She was an accomplished skater and tennis player, 12 times Western Pennsylvania Women's Doubles Champion and 10 times Western Pennsylvania Mixed Doubles Champion and Allegheny County Champion in 1947. She really excelled at golf, which she had not played until she met her golf fanatic husband "Bud" Semple. He was a talented amateur golfer and much involved in local golf and ultimately on the national level, becoming President of the United States Golf Association in 1974. Once Phyllis learned to play golf there was no looking back. She, like her husband, both played and was involved in the administrative side of the game. She won numerous women's tournaments, including the Pennsylvania State, The West Penn Championship six times, a United States Senior Championship, two Pennsylvania State Senior Championships, a North and South Senior Championship and 16 Club Championships. She was Captain of the Women's U. S. World Amateur Team playing in Portugal in 1976. She served with the Women's Golf Association of Western Pennsylvania, was President of the Pennsylvania State Golf Association, was on the board of the Women's Eastern Golf Association and the Women's Western Golf Association. She was a member of the USGA's Women's Committee for fifteen years and on the USGA's Museum Committee for ten years. Her greatest golf satisfaction came in enjoying the fabulous amateur golf career of her daughter, Carol Semple Thompson. The mother not only played her daughter on many an occasion, but was her greatest fan, following and supporting her in tournaments all over the world.The family will receive friends at the Allegheny Country Club, Country Club Road, Sewickley Heights, from 4 to 7, on Friday, January 30, 2009. A service celebrating the life of Phyllis Semple will be conducted at the Presbyterian Church, Grant Street, Sewickley, at 11:30 A. M., Saturday, January 31, 2009. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Sewickley Valley Historical Society, 200 Broad Street, Sewickley, PA 15143 or the Lupus Foundation of Pennsylvania, 100 W Station Square Dr., Suite 315, Pgh., PA 15219. COPELAND SEWICKLEY in charge of arrangements.
Send condolences at post-gazette.com/gb