Laura Mitchell Keene of Warrington has passed at age 98. The author-educator-artist was a descendant of abolitionist John Pierre Burr, organizer of the Pa. Anti-Slavery Society. Her remarkable life was encapsulated by Valerie Russ at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Keene was born in West Philadelphia and grew up during the Great Depression, an experience that heightened her sense of charity. According to her son, no visitor to the family home left without being accompanied by a parcel of food.

As a teen, she met Paul F. Keene, Jr., while working at a summer camp. They married in 1944.

The couple moved to Warrington in 1957, where they started a family.

Keene earned education degrees from Temple University (bachelor’s and master’s) and taught in the Central Bucks School District at Warwick and Doyle Elementary Schools.

In 2017, the Pearl S. Buck Writing Center Press published Keene’s memoir, A Woman of Worth. It contained an incident that spoke of her grit. On a 1950s trip from Phila. to Washington, Keene calmly but firmly refused to move to the back of a bus.

When asked about it later, she said that she had endured many similar instances but quickly shook them off without a grudge.

“You can’t be angry all the time,” she said.

More on Laura Mitchell Keene is at The Philadelphia Inquirer.