Eva Alene Hilty, was born November 13, 1918 in Brownington, Mo, the first of two children to the parents of Calvin Haverland and Ethel Mae Holland, both of whose parents had emigrated from Germany with their families when they were children. She passed away on July 13, 2010.
Alene went to elementary school in Mt. Zion, Mo. When her family had moved she transferred to Lowry City, where she graduated high school in 1935. After high school she stayed home to help take care of her mother who was blind from an illness that started when Alene was very young.
The following year her aunt Lydia Haverland came to help the family and this made it possible for Alene to take the St. Clair County teaching exam. She was soon hired at Oak Grove where she had a one year contract and received a salary of forty dollars a month.
The following summer she borrowed money from her father Calvin and began taking college courses a Central Missouri State Teachers College. She taught two more years at Collins and in 1939 began teaching at Denny School east of Lowry City. It was during her third year teaching that she met her future husband Benjamin Hilty who attended a school fund-raiser. In July of 1942 they were married and within a month he was enlisted in the Army Air Corps. After moving from base to base they eventually made their home in Tucson, AZ. Eleven months later when Benny was medically discharged they moved back to Lowry City.
They lived in the church parsonage just downhill from Valley Center Church, which is where both of their sons were born. In the spring of 1951 they moved to a farm about two miles to the west. They would spend the rest of their working lives together on this farm.
Alene began teaching again and in the summer of 1960 fulfilled two of her life long dreams. She had received her degree from the Central Missouri State College and also built a new home on their farm. Alene had started teaching at Appleton City in 1962 and retired there in 1978 spending 30 years in the classroom. After retirement she substitute taught at the Lakeland for several years and traveled to Europe and South America with Benny.
Alene was a lifelong member of the Valley Center church. She loved collecting antique glassware, quilting, and was especially fond of growing flowers.
She is preceded in death by her husband Benny in 1988 and one sister, Nadine Williams
Alene is survived by two sons, Steven Hilty and wife Beverly of Shawnee Mission, KS and Samuel Hilty and wife Minda of Kansas City, KS; on grandson, Jeffrey Hilty of Kansas City, KS; three granddaughters, Dru L. Hilty of New York City, NY, LaRae Hilty of Chicago, IL and Olivia Hilty of Kansas City, Kansas.
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