Pauline Bell Bradley, who taught in a one-room school, loved growing flowers and provided a warm lap for many a sleepy grandchild, passed away early Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013. She was 95, nearly all those years spent on farms near Rich Hill, Mo. The early ones with her brothers and sister where they walked across fields to a country school. The later ones on a hilltop farm just to the east, raising her own children, gardening and reading countless books by the wood-burning stove. She graduated from Rich Hill High School and later attended Central Missouri State Teachers College. She taught at several Schools and also worked at Security Bank in Rich Hill.
She was a longtime member of the United Methodist Church Her husband, Claude, died in 2005 after 64 years of marriage. They lost a daughter, Linda Kathleen Reed, in 2003. A granddaughter, Laura Beth Reed Wallace, passed away last year. Also preceding her in death were her parents, Lewis and Sylva Bell, her twin sister, Virginia Bradley, and brothers Harold, Donald and Roland Bell. Survivors include a daughter, Beth Chorba, of Austin, Texas; son Robert and wife Shelley Bradley of Lee's Summit, son Bill and wife Debbie Bradley of Rich Hill, and son Don Bradley of Kansas City. She also leaves 12 grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.
The family will receive friends at 7 p.m. Thursday at Heuser Funeral Home in Rich Hill. Services will be 11 a.m. Friday at the United Methodist Church in Rich Hill with burial to follow at Green Lawn Cemetery. Pallbearers are Cody Bradley, Blake Bradley, Jeff Bradley, Sam Bradley, John Wallace and Ron Newcomb.
