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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
JUNE 29 - JULY 5, 2005
OBITUARY
Grad student loses fight with cancer
BY ADAM LAND
aland@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
Margery Ridgeway was not supposed to live more than a year after being diagnosed with cancer. But the University of Kansas graduate student fought it for three and a half years, finally succumbing to the disease in late May.
At the end of May, Ridgeway, 61, died in her home in Topeka.
She was born in Tulsa, Okla., Roy Ridgeway, her husband, said. She attended Will Rogers High School and the University of Tulsa, receiving bachelor's degrees in both Spanish and secondary education. Ridgeway received a master's degree from Washburn University.
Before her illness took hold of her, she was pursuing a doctorate in English as a second language from the School of Education at the University with a minor in indigenous nations studies.
Indigenous peoples and their cultures fascinated Ridgeway, who had been to more than one powwow. In the eulogy Karen Mead read at Ridgeway's funeral, she said that it was fascinating to listen to Margery explain the significance of the drumming and flute playing.
The fascination with the class work led her to become a teaching assistant at the University and at Haskell Indian Nations University.
INTERNATIONAL
She was also a volunteer tutor at the Pelathe Community Center, and a participant in the KU Diversity Dialogue Series, which she did "to focus on diversity and the elimination of racism," Mead wrote.
Ridgeway had a high-energy level and wanted to do and see as much of the world as she could, Mead wrote, even accompanying her daughter and her daughter's class to France.
Ridgeway is survived by Roy Ridgeway, her husband since 1993. She is also survived by her two children Lisa Ready, Topeka, and Bill Henson, Topeka. Other survivors include two step-children, Liese Vanatta, Overland Park, and Doug Ridgeway, Honolulu, as well as nine grandchildren.
Mead wrote in the eulogy that Ridgeway taught at the Bert Nash High School in Atchison, teaching people who many "considered unteachable, unreachable or unsaveable." She was more than a teacher and her students knew that, Mead wrote.
It was her love of people that drove her to be a teacher, said Sam Wheeler, director of education at the high school.
"We attended a lot of events together and she loved people," Wheeler said. "That had to be what gravitated her toward teaching."
Catholic officials begin John Paul II beatification
— Edited by Ashley Michaels
Cardinal Camillo Ruini, John Paul's vicar for Rome, presided over the Latin-filled
ROME — The Roman Catholic Church placed Pope John Paul II on the path to sainthood Tuesday during a joyous ceremony at a Roman basilica — the fastest start to a beatification process in memory for a man many considered a saint long before he died.
ritual launching the beatification "cause" at the Basilica of St. John Lateran.
During the ceremony key officials sat at a table set up on the altar, standing to recite an oath to keep their work secret and to refuse any gifts that might corrupt the process.
The faithful remained silent during the oaths but once the cause was declared officially open, applause rang out, and there were chants of "Giovanni Paolo" and "Santo Subito!" or "Sainthood Immediately!"
The Associated Press