A FORMER East Hendred school teacher has died aged 94.

Mary Fry taught at St Amand’s Roman Catholic Primary School for 14 years. She passed away on May 21 in St Katharine’s House in Ormond Road, Wantage.

Miss Keegan (as she was) was born in Liverpool on August 31, 1917, and married Gordon Fry in the city on February 7, 1945.

She went to La Sagesse, a private school run by French nuns, and it was there she was inspired to pursue a career in teaching. After completing her training at La Sainte Union in Southampton, she returned to Liverpool to teach.

During the Second World War her cousin Francis, who was serving in the Royal Navy, introduced her to his shipmate and friend Gordon Fry.

The couple initially lived in Liverpool and had their first children, Mary Elizabeth and Gordon, before moving to Cornwall.

Whilst living in the West Country, the couple had their other two children, Christine and George.

In January 1963, the family moved to Wantage. Mrs Fry began supply teaching at Grove CofE Primary School and then at Garston Lane Primary School.

In 1964, she began teaching at St Amand’s.

Her daughter Christine, 57, from Headington, Oxford, said: “She immersed herself in the school and East Hendred, making many friends.”

After Mrs Fry retired from St Amand’s, the couple moved to Dorset and then the Cotswolds in 1993. After Mr Fry’s death in 1997, Mrs Fry lived independently until 2007 when her house in Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, was flooded.

It was then she moved to the care home back in Wantage.

Her funeral was held on May 31 in Chipping Camden in the Cotswolds, where she was laid to rest with her husband.

She leaves behind her four children, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.