ABBETT, Hazel E
Date of death: 4 Feb 1952 – Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana
Unknown paper-Johnson Museum of History, Wednesday, February 6, 1952
HAZEL E. ABBETT
RITES ARE SET
FOR FRIDAY MORNING
Miss Hazel E. Abbett, former Franklin resident and for 32 years a teacher in Arsenal Technical high school in Indianapolis, was stricken Monday morning about 10 o’clock as she was getting out of her car at school.
An ambulance was called and she was taken to the Methodist Hospital and death occurred at 9:30 o’clock Monday night.
The body has been brought to the Flinn and Maguire mortuary where funeral services are to be conducted at 10 o’clock Friday morning. Dr. Galden A. Smith, pastor of the Grace Methodist church, will be in charge of the services and burial will be in Greenlawn cemetery.
Friends may call at the funeral home Thursday from 2 to 5 and 7 to 9 o’clock and Friday until time for the service. They are invited to attend the rites.
Native of County
Miss Abbett was the daughter of Lawson O. and Harriett Ann Mitchell Abbett and was born in Johnson county on Aug. 4, 1887. She received her education in the county schools and was graduated from Franklin high school with the class of 1906.
She attended Franklin College where she was affiliated with Pi Beta Phi social sorority Miss Abbett received her A. B. degree at Franklin and then attended Columbia University where she received her master’s degree in political science.
She attended summer school at Madison, Wis.; Cornell University and the Chalis School of Dancing.
From 1910 to 1916, Miss Abbett became a teacher in the Hopewell high school where her brother, Merle J. Abbett, was principal. She taught history and was coach of the girl’s basketball team. As head of the physical education department at Hopewell, she developed a strong team and won the admiration and love of her pupils.
Goes to Capital
In 1916, she accepted a position in the teaching staff at the Indianapolis high school, one of the largest schools in the United States, as teacher of social sciences. She later transferred to physical education and became the girls coach from 1917 to 1932.
Miss Abbett was interested in educational and civic programs and good an active part in them. She started the Girl’s Play Day in Indianapolis and these later spread to Greenwood and Franklin.
She was a member of the Grace Methodist church of Franklin, National Educational Association, National Physical Education Association, American Association of University of Women, Pi Beta Phi social sorority, and Delta Kappa educational sorority.
Those who survive are two brothers, Merle J. Abbett, superintendent of the Fort Wayne Schools; Roscoe Abbett, superintendent of the schools in Des Moines, Ia.; and a half-brother, J. Emmett Cheney, president of the North Side Dairy at Ithaca, N.Y.
Submitted by Lois Johnson