Emma Lou Shaffor, 86, passed away on August 18, 2025, in St. Andrews Village, Indiana. She was born on April 16, 1939, to the late George E. Hay and Emma L. (Shafer) Hay, in Sewickley, Pennsylvania.
She graduated from Somerset High School in 1956. She married Donald Somers on October 25, 1958. Don was diagnosed with cancer around Christmastime and passed away on April 15, 1959, the day before her twentieth birthday. She did her student teaching that fall at Altoona High School and graduated from Indiana State College, now IUP, in January 1960, one full semester early. She earned a BS in Education with a major in mathematics and minors in English and chemistry.
She taught mathematics for one semester at Shanksville-Stonycreek High School and four years at Somerset High School. She earned a Masters degree in Mathematics Education from the Pennsylvania State University. She participated in two summer National Science Foundation Institutes for teachers, which resulted in a faculty position at Shippensburg. She then taught in the Mathematics Department at IUP for four years. On May 27, 1967, she married David S. Keene, a professor in the Political Science Department. She quit teaching to raise a family. They were married for 29 years.
She accepted Jesus in August 1975 and was baptized in the Holy Spirit in 1977. She was a member of Graystone Presbyterian Church, serving as a small group leader and core group member of the Wednesday Morning Ladies’ Bible Study, as a deacon, as head deacon, and then as an elder, and working for one year as bookkeeper. She then worked as secretary/bookkeeper at First Assembly of God Church (now Summit Church) for 19 ½ years before she retired. She also worked as secretary/treasurer of the Christian Counseling Service of Indiana and was one of the original members of its Board of Directors. She served as membership chairman, treasurer, and president of the Indiana Morning Chapter of Women’s Aglow Fellowship and served as corresponding secretary of Aglow’s South Central Pennsylvania Area Board.
She was very proud of her children’s and grandchildren’s achievements and looked forward to their visits. She particularly enjoyed her hobbies and sewing clothing for herself and her daughters, knitting, and working counted cross-stitch. She also loved square dancing, an activity to which one of her daughters introduced her. Through square dancing she met caller Norm “Stormin’ Normin” Shaffor, whom she married on August 14, 2011. A member of Mountainview Squares in Blairsville, she was proud of having learned to dance both the lady’s and man’s part so that she could help any solo dancers who needed a partner, as well as having learned advanced-level dancing. She also served as Mountainview’s treasurer for more than twenty years.
She was preceded in death by her parents. She is survived by her loving husband Norman W. Shaffor; her daughters Deborah (Christopher) Walker of Conover, Ohio; and Elizabeth (Jeffrey) McCloud of Elizabethtown; and her grandchildren Nathaniel and Maxwell McCloud.
Friends will be received on Friday, August 22, 2025, from 4-7 PM at the Bowser Minich Funeral Home, Indiana, and again on Saturday, August 23, 2025, from 10:00 AM until the time of service at 11 AM with Reverend Greg Golden officiating. Private burial will be held in Casebeer Lutheran Church Cemetery, Somerset County.
The family would like to thank the staff of both St. Andrews Village and VNA Concordia Hospice for the love and compassion given to Emma Lou.
