Miss Mabel Dunaway, a Marion school teacher for 44 years, was born on April 26, 1885, at Marion. She was the daughter of Thomas Dunaway and Emma Benson. Mabel grew up and lived her entire life in the family home at 306 S. Market Street. Her father, Thomas, was a prominent Marion merchant and her grandfather, Samuel Dunaway, was a pioneer merchant and businessman, responsible for the first railroad spur into Marion in 1872.
Miss Dunaway graduated from Marion High School in the class of 1904 and attended Teachers College in Chautauqua, New York, the University of Chicago and Southern Illinois Normal Teachers College.
Mabel was a first grade teacher in the Marion school system for 44 years, retiring in 1950. She also taught one year at Herrin.
Mabel’s father, Thomas, passed away in 1921, and as all her siblings moved on, she remained in the home with her mother till she also passed in the 1930’s. Mabel continued living in the home until her death.
She was a member of the Marion Christian Church and an honorary member of the church’s board of trustees. She had served as board member and secretary and taught in the church Sunday school for many years. She also was a member of the Retired Teachers Association.
Mabel Dunaway, 78, of 306 S. Market St., Marion, died at 8 a.m., June 6, 1963, in Marion Memorial Hospital, where she had been a patient for five weeks.
She was survived by sisters, Mrs. Bess Ferguson and Mrs. Cleo Craig, both of Marion; a brother, Sam Dunaway of Marion; a niece, Mrs. Elizabeth Brosi, and two great-nephews, Craig and Brian Brosi all of Janesville, Wisconsin.
Two sisters, Mrs. Ethel Cunningham and Mrs. Julia Mitchell, died in 1948.
Funeral services were held at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Wilson Funeral Home, Marion. The Rev. Wayne Sheets officiated. Burial was in Rose Hill Cemetery.
(Extracted from the Southern Illinoisan, June 6, 1963)