Marie Waldron Inslee, 88, longtime teacher

Marie Waldron Inslee, 88, a longtime schoolteacher and a Quaker who fought for environmental and social causes and once offered to write a personal check to help out a would-be robber, died of complications of Parkinson's disease Jan. 24 at Chester County Hospital.

She lived in Downingtown.

Mrs. Inslee grew up in North Wales and on her grandfather's property outside Downingtown. Their 1850s hilltop farmhouse overlooked the Brandywine River, where she swam, canoed and fished as a child.

In the 1970s, she fought to protect the area and have it declared nuclear-free. Mrs. Inslee later shared her land on the portion of the river along Struble Trail to allow public catch-and-release year-round trout fishing.

After graduating from North Wales High School, she earned a bachelor's degree in 1942 from Wilson Teachers College in Washington and a master's in education from West Chester University.

She taught special-needs students in Downingtown, and kindergarten through sixth grade in one-room schoolhouses in Brandywine Valley, Hopewell and Pickering Valley.

Starting in 1970, Mrs. Inslee took the early-morning R5 train from Downingtown and a bus to West Philadelphia, where she taught at the Harrington School on Baltimore Avenue.

She retired from teaching in 1982 but continued to work as a caretaker for adults with disabilities.

She married Joseph Inslee, a Lutheran minister, and they raised two sons in Downingtown.

"My grandmother was not shy about setting people straight. She admonished perfect strangers: 'Do you know you have your baseball hat on backward?' " said granddaughter Julia Inslee.

Mrs. Inslee foiled a mugging when she offered to write a check for a would-be robber. "She wanted him to get some help to change his life. He didn't take the check and didn't rob her," her granddaughter said.

A member of the Religious Society of Friends since 1941, Mrs. Inslee advocated Quaker values of tolerance and peace. She worked for the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, promoting social justice and conservation of natural resources.

Mrs. Inslee wrapped her waist-length hair into a tight bun and often wore a brooch. "She had a Victorian sense of modesty - in her dress and personality. She bought her clothes in thrift shops, never wore trousers, and was always buttoned up," her granddaughter said. "She didn't like revealing clothing and didn't hesitate to say it."

Mrs. Inslee was Democratic committee person in East Brandywine in 1990 and was active in the Democratic Women's Club of Chester County.

"There were few local environmental or human rights groups that she was not involved in," said her granddaughter. "Her personal crusades were against drivers crossing the yellow line, restaurants wasting water, and litter. When she saw trash tossed on the ground, she picked it up."

Mrs. Inslee had an artistic side. She self-published a book of poetry,

Light and Shadow

, in 2002, played the piano, and was an accomplished painter. She collected antiques, jewelry, napkins and stray dogs.

Mrs. Inslee was a teacher until the end. "She asked that her body be donated to Jefferson Medical School," said her granddaughter.

In addition to her granddaughter, Mrs. Inslee is survived by sons J. William and Jonathan, and three more grandchildren. Her husband died in 1991.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Downingtown Friends Meeting, 800 E. Lancaster Ave.