COLUMBUS, INDIANA
Ann Herron was a teacher.
When she was an elementary school pupil in Scottsburg, IN, she often gathered neighborhood children in the basement of the family home and played school. With the acceptance of some and the complaints of a few, she always insisted on being the teacher.
When Ann Elizabeth (Kemp) Herron, 75, died Friday, December 23, 2022, at Columbus Regional Hospital after 32 months of struggle with primary peritoneal cancer ? a relatively rare form of ovarian cancer ? she was still teaching. Her life and her death were a metaphor for “good teaching” ? by word, by deed, by commitment and by values.
Her life’s journey took her through graduation as salutatorian of the Greensburg High School class of 1965, then on to Indiana University-Bloomington, where she earned both bachelor and master degrees with honors from the School of Education in a span of just four years.
At I.U. she met Howard (Bud) Herron in a class. They were married December 27, 1968, at Bloomington’s Fairview United Methodist Church, where her father was senior pastor. Eighteen months after their marriage, the couple went to Sierra Leone, West Africa, as short-term United Methodist missionaries. In Sierra Leone, Ann taught English to African men in training for the ministry and home economics to their wives.
While in Sierra Leone in 1970, Ann gave birth to a son, Howard Wesley Herron, who now lives with his wife Tory in Crestwood, Kentucky and works as senior graphic designer for a national farm publication.
After returning to the United States, the couple located in Franklin, IN, where their second child, Rachel Lynn Herron, was born in 1972. Coincidentally, Rachel currently lives in Franklin again, with her husband, Bill Clark, and their 11-year-old daughter, Zoe. Rachel is a Specially Designed Instruction Facilitator and Assistive Technology Coordinator at Earlywood Education Center, serving schools in a three-county area.
Although Ann taught part-time in several different settings over the years as she moved around the state and the country with her job-hopping journalist husband, she left public education and stayed home to be a presence for the children until they were in middle school.
In the 1985-86 school year she was hired by Franklin Community School Corporation to teach high school English and supervise the school publications staffs. She would teach there for the next 24 years ? receiving “Teacher Choice Awards” via the votes of the student body every year and being named “Teacher of the Year” at the high school in 2003.
Although she taught numerous classes of “academically gifted” students through the years, she preferred teaching incoming freshmen who had low scores on English proficiency tests given in Eighth Grade. She taught these students via writing assignments with follow-up, rather than by centering her instruction on rules of grammar.
Essays were assigned several times a week and Ann spent countless hours at home grading the writing and then going over each composition with each student. Results were remarkable.
Long after retiring in 2009, Ann rarely attended any event in Johnson County without some adult former student coming up to her and remarking what a positive difference she had made in his or her life.
In retirement, Ann continued to be involved in her community. She served on the Board of Directors of Turning Point, the agency for domestic violence services, was a member of the Bartholomew County Library Associates Board and was active every week stocking the library’s ongoing book sale. Two weeks before her death she worked at the book sale, pulling her oxygen tank behind her.
As a member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbus Indiana, Ann led or was a primary worker on various social action efforts ? particularly those dealing with racism and white supremacy. She co-chaired the annual Winter Market fundraiser for the congregation several years ? including the 2022 event just days before her death.
She was an environmentalist who composted or recycled so much of the discardable items from daily living that a friend once remarked “the trash collectors don’t know anyone lives at your house.”
And, just as when she taught neighborhood children in the basement of the family parsonage in Scottsburg, she never stopped teaching. She taught values, commitments, honesty and integrity in word and deed, but mostly by the unassuming example she provided with her every day life.
Ann was born April 14, 1947, in Huntingburg, IN., to Grester L. Kemp and Florence (Hemmer) Kemp. She is survived by her husband, two children and their spouses and her grand daughter, Zoe Elizabeth Herron Clark. Also surviving are 10 nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents and two brothers, James W. Kemp of Greenwood and Philip L. Kemp of Ft. Wayne.
A Celebration of Life commemoration is planned for Saturday, April 15 ? the day after Ann’s birth date ? on the lawn of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 7850 W. Goeller Blvd., Columbus, IN. There will be no traditional funeral or visitation at the present time.
Ann requested contributions in her memory be made to Turning Point, the Bartholomew County Library Associates, or the Unitarian Universalist Congregation.
