Mary Elizabeth Gunn died peacefully on Wednesday April 6, 2011 at Woodhaven Care Center in Ellinwood at 96 years, 8 months, and 6 days. She was the oldest child of Ernest E. and Elizabeth Wesley Eppstein and entered the world at her parents home, 2545 16th Street in Great Bend, Kansas, on July 21, 1914. She attended Great Bend schools. After completing her B.A. degree at Fort Hays State University in 1935, she worked at the Great Bend Tribune. In 1936 she married Charles L. Gunn. They built their house at 3009 16th Street, Elizabeths home for 70 years. Their son Charles Douglas was born in 1939. During her years as a homemaker Liz was an active member of the First Congregational United Church of Christ, and served as president of the Kansas Womens Fellowship and as the national leadership training chairman for five years. She was also the first chairman of the Barton County Red Cross blood program. In 1961 she began teaching high school English at Great Bend High School and earned her M. A. degree in English at FHSU in 1967. After her retirement in 1980 she taught part-time at Barton County Community College. She and her husband were active in the GED program and Elizabeth received the Master Adult Educator Award of the Kansas Adult Education Association in 1986. After her husbands death in 1985, she worked for the BCC Center for Adult Education and became involved with the Centers English as a Second Language program and the State Legalization Impact Assistance Grant program. Her efforts were recognized with the Kansas Reading Association Literacy Award in 1990. Her memberships included the National Education Association, Barton County and Kansas Retired Teachers Associations, the AAUW, Delta Kappa Gamma, PEO, and an honorary membership in the Kansas Association of Teachers of English. Elizabeth loved to read, knit, and travel, completing numerous trips to Europe and England, as well as parts of the USA. She remained positive, vibrant, and engaged through all the decades of her life. She was preceded in death by her three younger siblings, brothers Ernest and John, and sister Nell, and their spouses, and by her husband, and her son. She is survived by her daughter-in-law Virginia Railsback Gunn of Wooster, OH; by two grandsons, Eric Gunn of Athens, OH, and Peter Gunn of Wooster, OH; by her sister-in-law, Mary Gunn; and by numerous nieces and nephews and good friends who enriched her life. Memorial service will be at 2:00 p.m., Thursday, April 14, 2011 at the First Congregational United Church of Christ, Great Bend. The Reverend Stan Crawford will officiate. Private family inurnment will be in Great Bend Cemetery. Friends may sign the register book from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Wednesday, April 13, 2011, and 9:00 a.m. to Noon, Thursday, at Bryant Funeral Home. Memorial donations can be made to the First Congregational United Church of Christ or Fort Hays State Alumni Association or P.E.O., in care of Bryant Funeral Home.