Leah S. Driehorst

Wednesday, April 22, 1998

Leah S. Driehorst

First woman mayor of Washington
Leah S. Driehorst, 85, of Washington, died Monday, April 20, 1998, in Washington Hospital.

She was born June 13, 1912, in East Finley Township, a daughter of L. Wylie and Eliza Azel McCleary Sampson.
Mrs. Driehorst was a member of Church of the Covenant, Washington, where she was an elder, a trustee and a member of the Women's Association.
She was a graduate of Claysville High School and a 1933 graduate of Washington Hospital School of Nursing. She worked at Washington Hospital, retiring in 1980 as nursing supervisor.
From 1948 until 1960, Mrs. Driehorst served three terms as Washington city treasurer, and in 1980, running as a Republican, she was elected mayor of Washington, a post from which she retired in 1984.
Mrs. Driehorst was a member and past president of the Washington Hospital School of Nursing Alumni Association and a member and former three-term president of the YWCA. She was the first president of Hospice Inc. of Washington County and was active in a wide range of community and civic affairs.
On March 17, 1938, in Claysville, she married William T. Driehorst. Mr. Driehorst died August 29, 1961.
Surviving are two daughters, Betty Allison of Hickory and Mary Scott of Tucson, Ariz.; seven grandchildren, William D. Allison, Amy A. Plyler, W. Kenneth Allison, Patricia Scott Lopez, Walter R. Scott, Brian W. Scott and Rebecca Scott; and 18 great-grandchildren.
Deceased are two sisters, Gladys M. Danley and Margaret A. Sampson.