KYLE KEATON

KYLE KEATON, 88, of Barboursville, formerly of Iaeger, McDowell County, West Virginia, went to his heavenly home on Saturday, November 21, 2015, after a long illness. Kyle was born on April 16, 1927, in Iaeger to the late William L. Keaton and Myrtle Lockhart Keaton. In 1944, he graduated from Iaeger High School, at the age of 16. He was a 1948 graduate of Concord College, where he earned a B.S. Degree in Science. While attending Concord, he received a basketball scholarship and played four years for the Mountain Lions. He also earned an M.S. degree in Secondary Administration and Psychology in 1974, and an M.S. degree in Guidance Counseling and Sociology in 1977, both from Radford University. He began his teaching career in 1948 with the McDowell County Board of Education at Bartley Junior High School. After teaching two years, he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1950, where he served in Korea and Japan. Thereafter, he returned to the McDowell County School System where he served as a teacher, coach, assistant principal and as a guidance counselor. Subsequently, he transferred to Iaeger Junior High School in 1980, where he served as a guidance counselor until his retirement in June of 2000. His entire career spanned over 50 years with the McDowell County Board of Education. During his educational career, he was elected and served as a West Virginia NEA Delegate numerous occasions. Kyle also officiated football and basketball games on the junior high and high school levels for many years throughout the region. In 1948 he started his own successful bookkeeping and tax service business which he continued to operate up until early 2015. Kyle was an avid historian with an emphasis on the Civil War. He loved to travel and visited 13 different countries. Kyle was also a coin collector and an avid model train collector. Kyle was a loyal member of the Iaeger Church of God for over 50 years. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his brother, Charles H. "Red" Keaton, and his father and mother-in-law, William Clyde Campbell and Ella Payne Campbell. Left to celebrate his life and cherish the memories is his loving and wonderful wife of 63 years, Cricket Campbell Keaton of Barboursville, West Virginia, also formerly of Iaeger; one daughter, Nancy Keaton King and her husband Wayne King of Pembroke Pines, Florida; two sons, Billy Keaton of Bristol Tennessee; and Christopher Keaton and his wife Amy Vaughan-Keaton of Cannonsburg, Kentucky. He is also survived by two grandchildren, Brian Keaton and his wife Pam Keaton of Charleston, West Virginia and Ashley Patterson and her husband Drew Patterson of Mechanicsville, Virginia; and four great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be conducted at 2 p.m. on Saturday, November 28, 2015, at Roselawn Memorial Gardens, in Princeton, West Virginia, with the Reverend John Green officiating. Friends may gather with the family from 1 p.m. until the time of service. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Hospice, the American Alzheimer's Association, and/or The Village at Riverview, 1356 Riverview Drive, Barbousville, West Virginia. Reger Funeral Home of Huntington is in charge of arrangements. Condolences may be made to the family at www.regerfh.com.