Mary N. Berry (Nisbet)

Mary Nisbet Berry of Sioux City passed away Saturday, Aug. 9, 2008.

Memorial services will be 2 p.m. Friday at Grace United Methodist Church in Sioux City, with the Rev. Tony Nester officiating. Conversation and refreshments will follow the service in the church basement. Burial will be at a later date in Ava Evergreen Cemetery, Ava, Ill. Arrangements are under the direction of Morningside Chapel, Christy-Smith Funeral Home.

Mary Berry was born June 17, 1939, in Murphysboro, Ill., the daughter of Beulah Russell Nisbet and Harry Thomas Nisbet of Ava, Ill.

For more than 20 years, Dr. Berry worked as an educational consultant in elementary education and computer-assisted instruction at Western Hills Area Education Agency, retiring in 2002. Prior to that, she had experience in teaching grade levels first through eighth grades in public and private schools in several locations including, Illinois, New Jersey, Alabama, Ohio, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska.

She had taught library science graduate and undergraduate courses and served as administrator of a library media center at both building and district level. She had worked in programs for the gifted and talented as a teacher of the academically talented, as a district advisor and as a program facilitator. She earned in three years a bachelor's of science degree in education (1960) with honors at Southern Illinois University (SIU). Following a year of teaching, she earned a master's of science degree in education (1962) from SIU. In 1973, she was awarded the doctor of education degree from Indiana University, studying reading under Dr. Roger Farr and social studies under Helenka Sagl, both nationally recognized scholars. Her dissertation concerned individualization in reading instruction.

While at the AEA, she was most pleased with her work in the latter 1980s, helping schools develop appropriate uses for the computers in elementary classrooms. In addition, she worked with teachers and consultants for disabled children to provide the latest in assistive technology. Later, she worked to implement Reading Recovery, a research based individualized program designed to bring at-risk first and second graders to grade level achievement, helping such children avoid a school career of reading remediation. After retirement, she maintained a Web site to help elementary teachers use the Internet in their teaching. She also put a lot of effort into genealogical research via the Internet, enjoying discoveries of family history.

A member of Grace United Methodist Church, she had started working with the church library and wanted to try to make it especially "kid friendly."

She was a fan of baseball, horse racing (especially live at Atokad) and NASCAR, arranging to join the Rusty Wallace Retirement Cruise as her own husband's retirement celebration, much to his surprise and delight.

Like her father, she enjoyed gardening and took delight in planning and planting vegetables and flowers, seeing them grow and for the vegetables, trying different recipes, often inviting friends over for the results. Despite deteriorating eyesight, she was determined to continue crocheting, sewing and other projects. She never quite got to the 6,000-piece jigsaw puzzle.

She leaves her husband, F. Gordon Berry; a son, Thomas Allen Berry and daughter-in-law, Jennifer Jones of Papillion; and (an especial source of great delight) a grandson, Michael Thomas Berry.

She was preceded in death by her parents.

She would have wanted any memorials to support the Reading Recovery Council of North America, www.rrena.com and look for the quick link "Make a Gift."