She was born July 22, 1932, in Harrisonburg, the daughter of John R. and Esther Mosemann Mumaw. She grew up in the Park View area, and attended Park School and Eastern Mennonite School and College.

She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in home economics from Eastern Mennonite College, and Master of Science and doctoral degrees in family resource management from Pennsylvania State University. Her doctoral program was supported with a General Foods Fund Fellowship.

Her professional career included teaching positions at Lancaster Mennonite School, Pennsylvania; Eastern Mennonite College (University), Virginia; Goshen College (Indiana); and Oregon State University. She also directed transcultural programs in Jamaica for home economics students. After her retirement she volunteered as an education advisor to Kathmandu University in Nepal.

She was a loyal and contributing member of the American Home Economics Association (now the American Association for Family and Consumer Sciences) and of the state affiliates where she lived (Virginia, Indiana and Oregon). She joined the International Federation for Home Economics in 1967 and was active in leadership roles on the Executive Committee and a program committee. She also was a member of the American Association of University Women and Women in Development organizations.

She was honored with memberships in Phi Kappa Phi, Omicron Nu and the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International. Other honors included the 1985 Indiana Home Economics Association Leader Award, the 1992 Family and Consumer Scientist in Community Service Award by the Oregon FACS, the 1994 Distinguished Faculty Award by the Oregon State Home Economics Alumni Association, and the Alumna of the Year Award 2006 by ²ÝÝ®ÉçÇø.

She was a lifelong member of the Mennonite Church. She attended Harrisonburg Mennonite Church and was an active member of the Open Circle Sunday school class.

She served as a board member of Mennonite Mutual Aid (now Everence); Mennonite Economic Development Associates; Mennonite Community Association; and many Mennonite church committees. She also served on the boards of Indiana Partners of the Americas: Rio Grande do Sol; the Corvallis-Uzhhorod Sister Cities Association; and Solar Cookers International.

Her hobby as a musician included the role of choral director of the ladies’ sextet and triple trio for the Mennonite Hour Broadcasts; of EMC Ladies’ Chorus; and RMH Nurses’ Glee Club. She sang in many choirs, including the Shenandoah Valley Choral Society, the Eugene Chamber Singers, the Camerata Singers, Goshen Community Chorus and the Kathmandu Chorale. Other hobbies included photography and travel to foreign destinations, including more than 40 countries and all continents.

On Oct. 14, 2005, she married Clair L. Basinger, who survives.

She also is survived by four stepdaughters, Eileen Smith of Waynesboro, Virginia, Carolyn (Al) Wheeler of Stuarts Draft, Virginia, Darlene (Dan) Harman of Weyers Cave, Virginia, and Debbie (Glenn) Bollinger of Bridgewater, Virginia; nine step-grandchildren, Tracy (Jennifer) Smith, Tonya (Merle) Swarey, Rhonda Scott Fitzgerald (Dusty), Ryan (Darby) Deming, Renee (Jason) Miller, Nathan and Zachary Harman, and Andrew and Joshua Bollinger; and 13 step-great-grandchildren, Levi, Jeremy, Aaron, Daniel and Joshua Smith, Seth Swarey, Dakota and Delanie Miller, Tyler Scott, Kolby Powell, Dakota Boyers, Cheyenne and Montana Deming.

Three sisters survive: Grace Mumaw of Harrisonburg, Lois (Emanuel) Martin, also of Harrisonburg, and Miriam Mumaw of Arlington, Virginia. She was preceded in death by a sister, Helen (Laban) Peachey and a stepson-in-law, Cleo Smith. Three nieces and three nephews survive with their families, as do numerous cousins and friends.

A service of celebration took place Tuesday, July 22, 2014 at Harrisonburg Mennonite Church. A private burial will take place at the Lindale Mennonite Church cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the Mennonite Central Committee, P.O. Box 500, Akron, PA 17501-0500; or to ²ÝÝ®ÉçÇø for the Catherine R. Mumaw Endowed Scholarship Fund (for international students), 1200 Park Road, Harrisonburg, VA 22802.

Online condolences can be sent to the family at .

Courtesy of McMullen Funeral Home, July 17, 2014

Auctioneer H.L. Wenger of Harrisonburg calls for bids on Brownie and Gladys Driver’s Log Cabin Cross quilted wall hanging, a duplicate of one the sisters made earlier that was given to Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Photo by Jim Bishop

A 21″ by 31″ quilted wall hanging, “Log Cabin Cross,” the sisters made this summer to donate to the relief sale instead was purchased by EMU as a gift to Rev. Desmond Tutu. The Anglican Archbishop was in Harrisonburg on Sept. 21 – the International Day of Peace – to receive an award from the Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence at James Madison University in recognition of his peacemaking work in his native South Africa.

EMU President Loren Swartzendruber and other EMU officials participated in a tree-planting ceremony at the Gandhi Center earlier that day and gave the Nobel Laureate the Drivers’ handmade wall hanging.

The $500 EMU paid for the piece was donated to , the worldwide relief and service agency based in Akron, Pa.

Back to Work

In a two-week period immediately following, the Driver sisters fashioned a second identical Log Cabin Cross wall hanging that went for $525 during Saturday’s auction.

The Driver sisters, residents of Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community, have created paintings, quilts, comforters and wall hangings to donate to the sale every year since the event began in 1967. “It’s something we can do,” Gladys Driver said. “We’d feel like something was missing if we didn’t participate in this way.”

This year’s sale raised $310,000 in gross receipts for Mennonite Central Committee, nearly identical to last year’s sale.

‘Penny Power’ Project

These funds include approximately $21,835 for the “Penny Power” project, initiated in 2001, in which area congregations and other groups collect coins and currency in large water jugs for weeks or months and bring their containers to the sale for sorting and tabulating.

The “Penny Power” funds will be divided equally between MCC and . MCC’s portion will be used to minister to AIDS orphans and vulnerable children in 11 countries. VMBM will use its portion to support the ministry of Micah, Adam and Isaiah Riddle, children of missionaries Chris and Melody Riddle in Italy.

An auction of handmade quilts, wall hangings, knotted comforters and afghans, artwork and wooden handcrafted items accounted for $120,000 of the total funds raised.

$1,000 or More

Around 19 items went for $1,000 or more.

A wall hanging designed and pieced by Carmen Wyse of Community Mennonite Church and quilted by Grace Mumaw of Lindale Mennonite Church that was made from feed sacks of the 1930s and 1940s went for $6,100.

A 13th edition of the “Harmonia Sacra” songbook created by Joseph Funk and published in 1869 went for $1,200.

There’s no glazed expression for first-year EMU student Ingrid Johnson, one of many volunteers in the homemade donut operation. The process started at midnight, and persons worked three-hour shifts in making 15,000 of the confectionery delights. Photo by Jim Bishop

Again this year the venue included such popular food items as 15,000 homemade glazed donuts, 150 gallons of Brunswick stew made on the premises by members of Springdale and Mt. View Mennonite churches in Augusta County, 3,000 barbecued chicken halves, homemade potato chips and apple butter and cider.

Live Radio Broadcast

The sale opened with a Friday afternoon two-hour live radio broadcast called “Down Home Shenandoah” on radio station WSIG, 96.9 FM. Using music and storytelling, the program sought to interpret the history and culture of the various Mennonite groups in the central Valley area. The broadcast ended with the audience joining in singing “606” (now #118 in the Brethren-Mennonite hymnal), “Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow.”

“This was an experiment of sorts, an attempt to bring back ‘old-time radio’ that you seldom hear anymore while trying to relate some of the area Mennonites’ church’s distinctives and traditions,” said Hal Dubois, co-host of the show.

“The sale auction seemed a bit different this year in that there weren’t a lot of ‘big ticket’ items, said Marvin Nisly, relief sale chair. “No quilt went for more than $4,000, yet at the same time the auction generated almost the same amount as last year.

Nisly thought the unseasonably warm weather helped draw “a larger than usual crowd,” adding: “I’m always amazed at the way everything comes together [at the sale] and the amount of good will that is generated as people support this relief effort.”

The Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale is held annually on the first Saturday in October. It began on the Wenger farm near Waynesboro and expanded to Augusta Expoland in 1974. The sale moved to the Rockingham County Fairgrounds in 1999.