Maxine Ava Kearns, 82, of Fairbury passed away at 2:35am on September 9, 2009 at Evenglow Lodge, Pontiac.

Cremation will be accorded. Private inurnment will be in Graceland Cemetery in Fairbury.
A Celebration of Life Service will honor her at First United Methodist Church in Fairbury at 11:00am on Saturday, September 19, 2009 with the Reverend Thomas Swantner of Frankfort, IN, The Reverend Charles McDonald of Fairbury and The Reverend Stanley Rapp of Loda will be officiating. Duffy-Pils Memorial Home in Fairbury is in charge of arrangements.

She was born February 1, 1927, in Anderson, IN, a daughter of Alva G. and Lucy Jones Atwell.
She married Irvin Lee Kearns in Oak Park, IL on June 20, 1948. He survives.

Also surviving are one son, Thomas Leroy Kearns of Chicago, and one daughter, Linda Jean Kearns of Pontiac; one sister, Alene Ada Taylor of Port Charlotte, FL; six nieces and five nephews; and many great nieces and nephews and several great, great nieces and nephews.

Six brothers, three sisters, seven nephews and two nieces preceded her in death.

Mrs. Kearns was a teacher of Spanish and English in the Forrest-Strawn- Wing High School. She graduated from Anderson High School in Anderson , IN, Vennard College in IA receiving a Bachelor of Sacred Literature, and a Bachelor of Science in Education at Eastern Illinois University in 1968. She retired from teaching in 1990 after 22 years.

Ava was a member of IEA/NEA, NEA Retired Teachers, Livingston County Retired Teachers, the Livingston County Mental Health Board, The Martin Luther Homes of Illinois (now Mosaic), First United Methodist Church of Fairbury, The United Methodist Women and the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.

Memorials may be made to Mosaic at Pontiac or Futures Unlimited, also of Pontiac.