Blevyn Wheeler

Blevyn H. Wheeler
January 3, 1931 - April 22, 2018

Blevyn Gladys Emeline Hathcock Wheeler passed away peacefully on April 22, 2018, in Madison, WI, after a brief illness. She was born in Oakboro, NC, on January 3, 1931, to Pearl Greene and James Bunyan Hathcock, and grew up on the family farm. Her family worked hard and valued education. The seventh of nine children, she showed a love of learning and of music from an early age. She studied piano seriously, squeezing in practice wherever possible. During the cotton harvest, she would "make her fingers fly" to gather her sack of cotton, finishing her row before her siblings caught up with her. This allowed her to dash across the yard and into the house, and play a few bars of Chopin and Liszt as they finished their work. She also had a lifelong interest in writing. At seventeen, in 1948, she won a contest sponsored by The Southern Agriculturalist Magazine, for her essay, "You, Your Farm, and Your Finances," which resulted in a trip to the Oval Office to meet President Harry Truman.

After graduating from Oakboro High School in 1949, she attended Appalachian State Teachers' College and Wake Forest University. She obtained a Masters in English Literature from UNC-Chapel Hill, where she served as editor of the Carolina Quarterly literary magazine. A sense of adventure inspired her to strike out to NYC and Washington for summer jobs during her college years. In 1956, she arrived at West Virginia University - Morgantown, to teach composition. There she met her future husband, Robert Harvey Wheeler, from East Bloomfield, NY, a fellow English teacher. They married in 1959. After living in Rochester, NY, Wake Forest, NC, and Oswego, NY while Bob finished his Ph. D. and started his career, the two settled near Morris, NY, restoring a Victorian farmhouse where they raised their four children. While Bob taught in the English Department at the State University of New York at Oneonta, Blevyn stayed at home for her children's early years and then taught writing in the College Writing Center. She also taught American Literature classes at the SUNY-Morrisville Extension. She loved teaching both writing and literature, and enjoyed and appreciated her students.

Blevyn was a beloved wife, mother, and grandmother ("Mimera") who taught her children and grandchildren a love of beauty, art, music, and the written word. She wrote wonderful letters, carefully crafted teaching plans, and detailed and inquiring notes on every church program. She wrote a special book for each of her grandchildren, with illustrations by her dear friend Elizabeth Nields. She was loving, observant, and kind, appreciated her friends deeply, and had a musical, unforgettable, laugh. Though life took her far from her home in North Carolina, she always cherished her roots and her family. She is predeceased by her eight NC siblings and her husband, and survived by her children John Wheeler (Lisa Neff), Kathryn Wheeler (Dave Lewis), Bob Wheeler (Kelly Wilson), and Diana Wheeler (Steve Paddock), as well as by nine grandchildren, Eva, Ben, Grant, Malcolm, Harvey, Thomas, Peter, Finn, and Caitlin.

The family will hold a memorial gathering at the family home in Morris, NY over Labor Day Weekend, 2018. Contributions in Blevyn's memory may be made to the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra (WYSO) at www.wysomusic.org/support-wyso , or the First Presbyterian Church, 113 Marion Ave. Gilbertsville, NY, 13776.

Condolences may be sent to the family care of Cress Funeral Service in Madison, WI at https://www.cressfuneralservice.com/obituary/256539/Blevyn-Wheeler/#tributes

or to:

Cress Funeral Service
6021 University Ave.
Madison, WI 53705
608-238-8406