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Nancy Keen Curley, retired school teacher

May 7, 2018

On Sunday, April 10, 2018, our beloved stepmom, aunt, cousin, sister and friend went home to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Nancy Keen Curley lived a Godly, strong, and long life, serving others through her 40-plus-year career teaching in several Delaware elementary schools in the Alfred I. DuPont School District and in the Southern Delaware school districts. Teaching young hearts was her passion, and she was well loved and is remembered by her students.

She also was active with Meals on Wheels, delivering with her husband, Arthur Curley, who preceded her in death in 2013 after 43 years of marriage.

Nancy, born in 1931 to Stanley and Frances Folsom Keen in Wilmington, was one of 13 children. She leaves behind three of those siblings: Vereda Keen Clough of Kitty Hawk, N.C., Frances Keen Russell of Wilmington and Merrill (Linda) Keen of Chesapeake City, Md.

A 1949 graduate of PS DuPont High School, Nancy went on to graduate from Bob Jones University, and returned to Delaware where she lived half of her life in the Wilmington area, and in her later years, she and her husband resided in the Rehoboth/Lewes area, where she passed away.

Nancy's love of knitting, doing needlepoint, and cross stitch led her to open a knitting store in Rehoboth called the Yarn Basket, which she owned and ran for a number of years. Over the years she made sure at least every one of her stepdaughters, nieces and nephews had afghans when they got married and beautiful knitted blankets for the arrival of new babies (which could mean over 65 pieces!).

Nancy will be greatly missed by her stepdaughters whom she loved and treated as her own: Claudia (David) Curley Van Hook of Wake Forest, N.C., and Mary (Russell) Curley Brannan of Lincoln University, Pa., as well as the eight grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren. She was also a devoted aunt to over 45 nieces and nephews and their children, who will miss her dearly, as well as many dear friends.

The family would like to thank the staff at Brandywine Senior Living's Reflections unit for their kind and patient care of Nancy, and for the hospice care of Vitas support as well.

A Memorial Service at Lewes Presbyterian Church, 133 Kings Highway, Lewes, is being planned for Tuesday, May 22, Nancy's 87th birthday, at 11 a.m.

Arrangements are being handled by Parsell Funeral Homes and Crematorium, Lewes.

 

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