Ohio kindergarten teacher and US Coast Guard veteran Audrey Keagy. Photo credit: WikiTree.

There are many American veterans who have chosen to serve in the classroom after they have served their country in the military. One of these is Audrey Keagy, a kindergarten teacher from Ohio who also served in the US Coast Guard.

Audrey was born on August 17, 1923, in Jefferson County, Ohio. When she was a child, her family moved frequently because her father worked for the New York Central Railroad.

After she graduated from high school in Ohio in 1941, Audrey took a job as an office worker at the Timken Roller Bearing Company in Canton. When World War II broke out, Audrey supported the war effort by working in Republic Steel, a factory that assembled airplanes. In October, 1944, she joined the SPARs branch, the Women’s Reserve of the US Coast Guard. The military sent her to Toledo, where she worked as a switchboard operator.

Once the war was ended and her service was over, Audrey returned to Canton. She used her GI Bill benefits to enroll at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, where she earned the education necessary to become a kindergarten teacher. She was the first person in her family to attend college. “My mother was absolutely thrilled that I was attending college,” Audrey once remembered.

Audrey got her first teaching job as a kindergarten teacher in Canton. Eventually she transferred to the Williamsburg, Ohio, school system where she taught for 26 years. After her retirement, she continued to serve her community as a literacy tutor at her local library.

This amazing Chalkboard Hero passed away on May 18, 2012. To learn more about Audrey, click on this link to WikiTree.