Marie Driver, who taught hundreds of little first graders to read at Washington Irving Elementary School, has died. She was 99. Velva Marie Moore was born to Robert Ansel Moore and Mamie Mildred Williams Moore in 1922 in Roberta, Okla.
She graduated from Calera High School and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Southeastern State College in Durant. She was married to Ross Ivan Driver for 50 years.
Before teaching at Washington Irving, she served as Durant High School secretary and secretary to the Durant Superintendent of Schools. She was a member of the First Baptist Church where she volunteered in the nursery for many years and later joined a women’s Sunday School class. Marie was an excellent seamstress, tailor, baker, and cook and won many blue ribbons at the Bryan County Fair. After retirement, she enjoyed traveling in the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, and Israel. Most of all she loved being with her family.
Marie is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Diane and Wayne Bower; her granddaughters and their husbands, Kelly and Bryan Harris and Stephanie and Blair Baker and six great-grandchildren: Austin, Trevor, and Juliet Harris, and Zoe, Alexander, and Daniel Baker.
She is preceded in death by her husband; son, Michael Ross Driver and sister, Mildred Klein.
A family service will be held later this month.
Services are under the direction of Holmes~Coffey~Murray Funeral Home in Durant, Okla.