Teacher Kept Students on the Go: Fresnan Who Died at 90 Expanded Their Minds With Frequent Outings.

By Jim Steinberg, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

Mar. 15–Mary Louise Hensley of Fresno was an elementary school teacher most students could love, and not merely because she believed they would learn more if they could be out of her classroom two days a week.

Following that philosophy, Mrs. Hensley took students to a Buddhist temple, where a monk taught them math skills by describing how the temple had been constructed.

Memorial services for Mrs. Hensley will be at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Northwest Church chapel. Mrs. Hensley died Feb.25. She was 90.

Her students remember visiting the Fresno County Courthouse on a trip arranged by the lawyer father of one student. They recall a field trip to San Juan Bautista, inspecting the ground and buildings after an earthquake.

When Mrs. Hensley’s life was ending, her son, Chuck, e-mailed former students.

James Acomb, 42, of Cupertino responded, remembering his fourth-grade class with Mrs. Hensley, including the tarantula on display. He recalled a biology field trip that featured microscopic exploration of Lost Lake pond water.

“We had a menagerie of animals in the classroom,” Acomb says, recalling mud puppies, other salamanders and a canine puppy that slept on a sweater in Mrs. Hensley’s opened desk drawer. There was a class mouse named Sergeant Skittles, and a class hamster named Sam, who became Samantha after she gave birth.

Mrs. Hensley taught at Winchell and Norseman elementary schools, became a teacher of gifted students and then became a reading specialist, says Chuck Hensley, a medical consultant and administrator.

Mrs. Hensley began as an art major at Fresno State College. She earned her credential and then overcame cancer, first as a young woman and again in her 70s, her son recalls.

Her hands-on classroom activities reflected her own hobbies and interests, he says. Mrs. Hensley liked to weave on a four-harness loom and throw pots on a potter’s wheel. She also painted.

Mrs. Hensley is survived by Chuck Hensley and another son, Donald Hensley of Porterville.

The family requests that any remembrances be sent to Hinds Hospice in Fresno.

The reporter can be reached at jsteinberg@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6311.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

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