Mary Sample

A world traveler, who sailed on ships with queens and knights, corresponded regularly with a well-known children’s author and had tea with the daughter of a man whose lyrics became a popular hymn died of natural causes, October 9, 2010, at her Hoosier Village home near Zionsville, Indiana. Mary Catherine Sample, 97, fulfilled her dream of living on a farm, rearing a family and traveling the world. Born in Milton, Ind, in 1913, she was graduated from Morton High School in Richmond in 1931. She received her B.S. degree in biology and physical education from Ball State University in 1935 and taught for a year at Red Key, Ind. One summer she was the director of athletics at Haskell Institute, Lawrence, Kan, where, in addition to swimming, tennis, gymnastics and dance, she taught Native Americans archery. Shortly thereafter, she married Glenn W. Sample (deceased) and moved to West Lafayette, Ind, where she became active in campus activities while her husband worked for Purdue University. West Lafayette was also the first home to three of her four children. The family moved to Lanham, Md, for one year during World War II while her husband worked for the University of Maryland. In 1945, the family again moved to Indianapolis where Mr. Sample was employed by the Indiana Farm Bureau, a company for which he worked 31 years. A fourth child to the family was born. In 1951, the family moved to a 150-acre farm west of Zionsville. Mary Catherine was not reared on a farm but always had been associated with farm life. She wanted her family to experience a rural upbringing instead of an urban setting. She and her family worked hard on the farm. She had two gardens, sold eggs from her chickens to finance music lessons for her children and cared for cows, swine, sheep, ducks and geese. In her spare time she sewed complete wardrobes of doll clothes for antique china head dolls, embroidered, worked on her family genealogy, attended club meetings, produced more than 100 scrapbooks and photo albums each labeled with names, places and dates, and taught Sunday school at the local church. She had an innate drive to learn. One of her goals was to instill this passion in each of her children and to provide them opportunities for achievement. She was a prolific reader of ancient and biblical history. She enthusiastically read children’s books out loud to each of her children, especially books by Beatrix Potter. She became enamored with the “Little House” books and actively corresponded with author Laura Ingalls Wilder. In 1958 she and three of her children drove to Mansfield, Mo, to spend time with Ms Wilder at her home. In addition to his duties as information director, Mr. Sample created the Hoosier Travel Service after the War to encourage Indiana farmers to see agriculture in other parts of the country. Mary Catherine accompanied her husband on the initial tours to Texas, California and Hawaii. She expressed interest in more travel, and when the Hoosier Travel Service was sold, she became the tour escort for groups to Europe, Hawaii, Japan, Africa and South America. It was on a trip to Europe aboard the Queen Mary ship that she met England’s Queen Mother. Mary Catherine thoroughly enjoyed her travels to 126 countries. Altogether, she journeyed to Europe 60 times, China 8 times, Japan 6 times, South America 6 times, Africa many times and Hawaii more than 50 times. She rode horses, elephants, camels, llamas, rickshaws, motorcycles, cars, buses, trains, planes, canoes, zodiacs and sailed on ships in her travels. She went around the world several times, visited all seven continents, including Antarctica. It was on a trip to Antarctica where she met and had her picture taken with Sir Edmond Hilary, the first man to climb Mount Everest. While in Israel, she visited the American Colony of Jerusalem, founded by Chicagoan Horatio Spafford. Following the drowning of his first four daughters, he wrote the words to the hymn, It is well with my soul. She had tea with Bertha Spafford Vester, Spafford’s fifth daughter and at the time the oldest American citizen in Israel. In 1960, while visiting her son in London, she and her oldest daughter met the wife of composer Ralph Vaughn Williams during a tea at Westminster Abbey. Later in her life, Mary Catherine became interested in quilting. She pieced or appliquéd 31 quilts. She also began a slide show lecture series based on biblical and sociological studies and on her travels. Her talks centered on the people and historical cultures of countries she had visited. She presented chronological trends by showing pictures of how people dressed and the changes in landmarks from visiting a country numerous times in a 50-year span. She drew her material from her accumulated knowledge and from more than 50,000 slides taken on her trips. Mary Catherine was a genealogist before the science became popular. Always interested in her relatives, she wrote numerous letters, visited churches and graveyards and poured over old Quaker Meeting records. From her 80 years of work, she wrote several biographies and produced and published eight bound volumes on her greater family. She was a 30-year member of the Zionsville Methodist Church, acharter member of the Zionsville Historical Society and, since 1945, a subscription member to the Indianapolis Symphony. Additionally, she was a member of the Zionsville Women’s Club since 1952, Zionsville Village Arts and Studies Club, Canterbury Book Club, Indianapolis Department Club and a lifetime member of the Bronte Society in England. After she moved to Hoosier Village, she joined the New Song Choir, a group she sang with for 10 years. Mary Catherine is pre-deceased by her parents, Walter and Ida Moore Templin; her husband, Dr. Glenn W. Sample; three sisters, June Storch, Arleen Hylton and Louise Templin; and a grandson, Charles W. Hass. She is survived by her brother, LeRoy Charles Templin (Shirley); children: Louise Hass, James Sample (Betsi), Joseph Sample (Angela), Elizabeth Yegerlehner (Steven); grandchildren: Charles Hass (deceased), Rachel Clark (Cheyene), Derek Sample (Valerie), Peter Sample (Beth), Thomas Yegerlehner (Jennifer), Carson Ripple (Tawnya); 16 great grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews. Visitation to be held at Flanner & Buchanan Mortuary, Zionsville, Wednesday, October 13, 4-8 pm and Thursday morning at the Hoosier Village Chapel, 9:30 to 11 am, with services at 11 am. Internment at Milton cemetery. Donations and gifts to be made to Ivy Tech Community College Foundation, 50 West Fall Creek Parkway, North Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46208.