Irene Bishop Seeley passed away on March 13, 2006 at the age of 90.
She was born on March 27, 1915, in Lindsay in the home of her parents, Fred and Rose Bishop.
Irene attended Porterville Jr. College and the University of Santa Barbara and later graduated from California State University, Fresno.
She married Roy Burkhalter and during that marriage they adopted a daughter, Sioux. They separated after 10 years and Irene started teaching school at Jefferson Elementary School in Lindsay.
After a few years Irene met and married John Reed Seeley. They had a daughter, Linda, who passed away at age 2 ½, then a son, Steven.
After many years in the mountains Reed was transferred to Fresno as the Dispatcher for the Sierra National Forest.
Irene went back to teaching first at Houghton Kearney, then at Fort Washington, and then at Temperance-Kutner. She taught there many years before retiring. She cared deeply for all of her students and went out of her way to provide them the best education possible. She tried to make every subject not only interesting but fun. Irene and Reed were devoted members of Easterby-Know Presbyterian Church where they sang in the choir.
She was preceded in death by her husband John R. Seeley; mother and father, Rose and Fred Bishop; her brother Wendell Bishop; her sisters Elva Spence and Mildred Moore and her daughter, Linda.
Irene is survived by her daughter Sioux of Coarsegold; son Steven of Forest Grove, Ore.; her granddaughters, Heather and Linda, also of Oregon and many nieces, nephews, and great nieces and great nephews.
Services were previously held. The family request that in lieu of flowers, donations please be made to Alzheimer’s Research in memory of Irene Seely or the American Cancer Society in memory of Linda Seeley.
Published in the Fresno Bee
