Roll Call Tribute

Currie Funeral Home obituary
116 East Church Street, P.O. Box 1275
KILMARNOCK, VA 22482

Martha Speer
Kahler
1934 - 2015

Martha Speer Kahler, 81, of Irvington, VA, formerly of Temple, TX, died September 18, 2015 at Rappahannock Westminster-Canterbury after a brief illness.
She was born in Denton, TX on July 15, 1934. She graduated from Texas Woman''s University with a B.S. in Journalism and earned her Masters of Education from Texas AandM University.
Married in 1952 to James H. Kahler, they moved to Cameron, TX where she was one of the founders of the Cameron Public Library and the Central Texas Republican Women''s Club. He preceded her in death in 2007.
Kahler taught journalism at Temple High School for eight years. In 1977, her scholastic journalism peers honored he with the Edith Fox King Award recognizing Kahler as the best high school journalism teacher in Texas. The award is given by the Texas High School Press Association. That same year, she was one of the ten finalists for the Wall Street Journal Newspaper Fund''s Journalism Teacher of the Year.
In 1984, Kahler joined McLane Company, Inc., where she initiated and developed the public relations/advertising/trade relations department. In conjunction with Children''s Miracle Network, she worked with McLane customers to develop community programs to raise money for children''s hospitals, raising more than $15 million in five years. When she retired in 2000, the McLane Company dedicated the Scott and White Child Life Playroom to her, recognizing Kahler''s successful efforts to benefit children nationwide.
Kahler was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and Christ Episcopal Church in Temple, TX, where she served on the vestry. She was a board member and president of Christian Farms-Treehouse, a substance abuse treatment center in Temple. Kahler authored two books, McLane: The First 100 Years and Temple: Cherished Traditions, Great Expectations.
She was preceded by her parents, Lon A. and Margery (Watson) Speer; her son, James Harlan Kahler, Jr.; and a granddaughter, Erin Elizabeth Kahler.
She is survived by her daughters, Kathryn Kahler Vose (William O.) of White Stone, VA and Ann Elliott (James Richard Barnett) of Austin, TX; and a brother, the Rev. Lon A Speer (Mary) of Sugar Land, TX; and two grandsons, James H. Kahler III and Zachary C. Kahler, both of Houston, TX.
A memorial service will be held at Rappahannock Westminster-Canterbury, where she lived for the last four years, at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, September 29.
Burial and interment will be held at Christ Episcopal Church in Temple, TX, her parish for more than 30 years, at 11 a.m. on Friday, October 23.
The family requests that memorial gifts be made to Christ Episcopal Church, 300 N. Main, Temple, TX, 76501, or Grace Episcopal Church, P.O. Box 1059, Kilmarnock, VA, 22482.