 Home | Recent News | Newton | Henrietta Horst 02 Dec 2007 Henrietta Horst ‘proud that I could do that’ |  | Henrietta Horst's gift will go to create contemporary spa/bathing rooms for the Ermal and Ray McFarland health care center. | |
Henrietta Horst has made her home in Presbyterian Manor’s apartments since 1998. Her late husband, Lee Horst, had Alzheimer’s disease and was a resident in the Manor’s memory support center, Haury Place, until his death in 2002. Growing up in the 1920s in Whitewater, Kan., Henrietta had always wanted to be a teacher. In that day, a high school diploma was all that was required. So after graduating, she took a job teaching elementary school. Quickly recognizing the advantages of a more formalized education, Henrietta quit after a year to attend Kansas State Teachers College (now Emporia State
University), intending to get her teaching degree in four years. However, the realities of the era prevailed. “It was the time of the Depression,” she explains. “We didn’t have enough money. But little by little, I finished.” In 1938, she married fellow teacher Lee Horst. Both now sporting bona-fide teaching credentials, the couple moved to Abilene, Kan., where they found jobs in the local school system. Henrietta enjoyed a successful career as a third grade teacher. Lee initially taught as well, but ultimately retired from the post of school principal. Following their retirement and the onset of Lee’s illness, the Horsts found homes at Presbyterian Manor. Henrietta’s firsthand experience with the quality of care at the Manor helps explain her motivation for giving so generously to the Shaping Tomorrow campaign. “I just felt I needed to,” she says, “and that’s what I would do.” Her $15,000 gift will be used to help create contemporary bathing/spa rooms in the Ray and Ermal McFarland Health Center. “I was proud that I could do that, and I hoped other people would feel the same way.” Their son and daughter-in law, Ken and Jan Horst, were volunteers on the Shaping Tomorrow Campaign Committee.
About Us | Communities | Giving | Site Map
|
