Ethelyn Shepard

Retired teacher, philanthropist, Ethelyn M. Shepard, 92, died Saturday, February 16, 2013. Born in Buckingham County on December 23, 1920, Miss Shepard grew up the daughter of farmer Edward M. Shepard and Loveline Foster Shepard. She attended State Teachers College, now Longwood University, and after graduating in 1943, she began her first teaching position in Madison Heights. After three years she transferred to Highland Springs High School where she taught accounting, typing and other business classes until retiring in 1979.
A lifelong member of Salem United Methodist Church in Dillwyn, Miss Shepard attended worship every week, even commuting from Highland Springs each weekend during the years she taught. She served in various leadership positions in the church. She sponsored the youth group for many years, taught the youth Sunday school class, participated in the United Methodist Women's Circle, and served faithfully as church treasurer. She was a major benefactor to the church, donating new doors for the sanctuary and providing the majority of the support for a new fellowship hall and education wing in the 1990s.
Miss Shepard was a committed member and officer in the Buckingham Woman's Club, where she developed an interest in supporting the Patrick Henry Boys Home.
She was a generous and giving soul, who spent her life providing for others.
She was preceded in death by her parents. She left behind no close relatives, but had her church family and close friends, including L.D. Phaup and Nancy Phaup of Farmville, Dwayne Stinson of Richmond, and former student Joann Lindstrom-Clark of Manakin-Sabot. She had many devoted caretakers at Brookview Lodge and the Watson Center of The Woodland in Farmville.
Please make memorial donations to Salem United Methodist Church, 2160 Ca Ira Road, Cumberland, VA 23040.
Funeral services will be held Thursday, February 21 at 11 a.m. in the Salem United Methodist Church, Buckingham, with interment in the church cemetery.