MAE ILLINGWORTH HAMPEL RALSTON, 100

was born Nov. 12, 1908, in St. Marys, W.V., the only daughter of Charles Montgomery Illingworth and Caroline Illingworth. Mae died Feb. 7, 2009, at LaHacienda at LaPosada.

Mae graduated from Carleton College in 1930, and received her Master’s degree in Social Work from Case Western Reserve University in 1932. Mae was a social worker with the Traveler’s Aid Society in Cleveland, Ohio and later with the Child and Family Services of the State of Ohio. In the last decade of her 30-year career she was a psychiatric social worker with Central State Hospital in Indianapolis, In.

In 1934, Mae married Alford R. Hampel, the first cellist with the Cleveland Orchestra, who died in 1940. Mae married John D. Ralston M.D. in 1965, and they lived in Indiana, Colorado, and Florida before settling in Asheville, N.C. He died in 1997.

She is survived by her only child Jeffrey K. Hampel and daughter-in-law Ferne Kerr Hampel of Green Valley and Dillon, Colo.; two grandsons Scott Hampel (Karen) of Denver, Colo. and Mark Hampel of Chicago, Ill.; and great-grandson Kyle Hampel. Also surviving are cousin C. Parker Long of Green Valley; niece Lyn Tangedal of San Diego, Calif.; and grandniece MacKenzie Fidler of Miami, Fla.

Preceding her in death were her brothers Riley, Victor, Richard, and Edward.

A lifelong Methodist and a PEO member, Mae also had enjoyed club activities such as gardening, books, and physicians’ wives auxiliary in Asheville.

In 2003, she moved to Green Valley and lived at Silver Springs and LaPosada in 2007. The family would like to extend their appreciation to the staff of LaHacienda at LaPosada for their devoted and tender care.

A graveside service conducted by the First Methodist Church is planned for this June in Chelsea, Mich.