Obituary

Mrs. Louise Bietsch Harrison, eighty-nine years of age, passed away on Wednesday, March 24, 2010. Born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, she was the daughter of Mary M. and John P. Bietsch, and the loving wife of the late George S. Harrison, with whom she shared sixty-seven years of marriage.

Having attended Chambersburg Schools and Penn Hall Preparatory School, she graduated as a brilliant Business and Finance Major, and beautiful dancer and gymnast from her beloved Penn State University.

The consummate businesswoman and educator, Mrs. Harrison began an illustrious career traveling with her husband to Hawaii, where she directed Honolulu's division of the USO in Honolulu, to soon become Director of Physical Education and Recreation for the Hawaiian Islands YWCA, where she coached gymnastics and instituted the first Dance Program there and at the Honolulu Maryknoll School. While directing The Kulamanu Dance Studios, she began graduate study at the University of Hawaii.

A former Eastern Regional Tennis and Swimming champion, she began her career of Dance and Gymnastics Training Schools creating, with her husband, The Louise B. Harrison School of Dancing and The Harrison Gymnastics School sixty-three years ago.

Her doctrine for her studies throughout Chester County was to embody a refined atmosphere with a nurturing facility in which little girls could receive professional instruction while becoming young ladies who embrace elegance. Her original themes of "Little Girls are Very Special" and "Lessons that Last a Lifetime" were the creed of not only her schools but of many of those in our area. Founding the first in West Chester and esteemed Chester County Ballet Company, her entire life of perpetuating education including initiating a Jazz Program within The Downingtown Area Schools, a Ballroom Dancing Program within the Owen J. Roberts Schools, a Dance Therapy Intensive with The Devereux Foundation, and twenty-five years of Dance Therapy with St. Mary's of Providence School for Special Children.

Loving her country was personified with her ardent portrayal of loyalty and patriotism among all of her students, as she set the standard of unique professional excellence within a distinguished heritage of dance training.

Mrs. Harrison leaves her daughters, Christine and Deborah, and her adoring granddaughters, Caitlin and Cameron. The Harrison family invites their friends to her visitation at The DellaVecchia, Reilly, Smith and Boyd Funeral Home, Inc. 410 N. Church Street, West Chester, PA 610-696-1181; www.drsfh.com on Tuesday, March 30th, from 9:30am to 11:00am, a lovely Service immediately following, and then a gentle Interment at Fairview Presbyterian Church in Glenmoore, PA