| THE HIGHLY EDUCATED LESTER FAMILY OF PINK WV
Sarah Gretchen Whitworth Lester of Pink, Calhoun County, has died at the age of 100.
Her mother had made sure her seven children had music lessons, with Sarah Gretchen attending Florida State University in Tallahassee.
From a young age she had a beautiful voice and sang and played the piano in churches in several states, and locally in Spencer, Arnoldsburg, Boggs Fork, and Minnora
Family members from an urbane Florida area, after marrying her Calhoun WV husband, moving her to the backwoods, said "She will either find God or the Devil in those woods."
Everywhere she lived, she had a garden with flowers and vegetables. She did not have an easy life and found much solace in her Bible.
The Kenna Lester house of Pink, its bones shown here, was
the mainstay homestead for at least four generations of Lesters,
nearby Lesters Store and the long-closed Pink Post Office (1885-1955)
Also nearby was the Lester one-room school
(Photo Courtesy of Bill Hefner)
(L-R) John Wellington Lester, Pink merchant and Calhoun Superintendent of Schools; Kenna
Lester, member of WV Legislature; John W. Lester, chemical engineer
She married John Wellington Lester in 1941, he of the third generation Pink WV Lester family, who were longtime educators, farmers, merchants and politicians. Her husband was a WWII veteran and a chemical engineer.
The Lester's were mainstays of the Pink community, a tiny post office and store location on Pink Road, off US 33-119. Her father-in-law
Kenna Lester was elected to the legislature from Calhoun county in 1916, and his father Wellington Lester had served as Superintendent of Schools in Calhoun.
Everywhere she lived, she had a garden with flowers and vegetables. Family members said she did not have an easy life and found much solace in her Bible, always tending to her vegetables and flowers.
A memorial service is planned for the Spring. Taylor-Vandale Funeral Home. See full obituary on OBITS.
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