Curry

Dorothy E. Eppinger Curry, 92, of Portersville, Muddy Creek Township, died at 5:15 p.m. Monday at her home.

Born in Worth Township, Sept. 11, 1918, she was the daughter of Orange Noble Studebaker and Hallie Blanche Heckathorne.

She married Charles L. Eppinger on July 18, 1945, and he died Aug. 29, 1968. In 1972, she married George Franklin Curry, and he died in 1982.

Mrs. Curry was a member of the Zion Baptist Church in Worth Township and was a former Sunday school teacher.

She graduated from Slippery Rock State College, now Slippery Rock University, in 1940.

An elementary school teacher, her first teaching job was a one-room school in Muddy Creek Township on land later covered by Lake Arthur. While there, she taught eight grades at a time for three years. She also taught in the Shenango School District. After her marriage, she taught at the Princeton School in Slippery Rock Township, Lawrence County.

She and her first husband, Charles L. Eppinger, owned and operated the Eppinger China Co., a wholesale/retail company selling china and fuel. Later, following road construction, they relocated up the road turning the china warehouse portion of the store into a restaurant known as Eppinger's Restaurant. She continued the operation of the restaurant until her retirement in 2005.

She enjoyed travel. She visited all seven continents and 137 countries and enjoyed them all. She always wanted to eat their native foods and mingle with the common people. She enjoyed out of the way places, where the local people lived as well as the regular tourist sites. She traveled the Silk Road in China and was a member of one of the first groups within a year of China's opening to Westerners to visit there. She enjoyed her visit to Cambodia and Vietnam. She spoke to many organizations, showing slides and sharing her visits.

Surviving are a son, John E. Eppinger and his wife, Tiffany, of Portersville; two daughters, Nancy C. Stewart and her husband, Robert, of Renfrew and Linda C. Nye of Portersville; four grandchildren, Jeremy Eppinger and his wife, Carla, of Portersville, Hallie Mikes and her husband, Keith, of Cleveland, Lisa Lohr and her husband, Jeffrey, of Evans City and Patrick Nye and his wife, Maryann, of Portersville; and five great-grandchildren, Jackie and Katie Lohr and Ariana, Antonio and Alexa Nye.

In addition to her parents and husbands, she was preceded in death by two sisters, Mae Gertrude Newton and Ann Elizabeth Mercer; and a brother, Charles Glenn Studebaker.

<B>CURRY</B> — Services for Dorothy E. Eppinger Curry, who died Monday, Jan. 10, 2011, will be at the <B>Smith Funeral Home</B>, 421 New Castle St., Slippery Rock, at 11 a.m. Friday with the Rev. Tom Meling, pastor of the Zion Baptist Church, Worth Township, officiating. Visitation will be at the funeral home Thursday from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Interment will be in Zion Lutheran Cemetery in Middle Lancaster.