“I will miss their smiling faces,” said Warsaw R-9 pre-school teacher Lucy Bell as she prepares for retirement after the 2025 school year ends.
After 29 years in public education, Lucy Bell has plans to move to England with her husband Methodist minister Loren Whetsell this summer.
Warsaw R-9 Superintendent Scott Gemes was sorry to lose Bell as one of the district’s best teachers.
“Lucy has been a great teacher for our youngest learners are Warsaw R-IX,” said Gemes. “She does a great job working with our teachers in both ECSE programs and Pre-K program. When she came to Warsaw, she brought a lot of knowledge from other districts. I am excited for her in her retirement, but she will be missed at Warsaw South.”
Bell’s pre-school teacher partner Kristy Henderson was also sorry to hear of Bell’s retirement. “Mrs. Bell has been a passionate and resourceful teacher for some of Warsaw's youngest students. She has an immense knowledge of child development and helps students gain knowledge and social-emotional skills every day.
She and her husband, Pastor Loren Whetsell, have also made it possible for students in our youngest grades to receive monthly books for several years now. She has been a wealth of knowledge and I wish them tons of luck in their new adventure in the UK,” said Henderson.
The youngest of six children, Bell grew up in Steelville, Missouri and graduated from SHS in 1986. She graduated from the University of Missouri at Rolla in 1990 then received her Master’s degree in 1996 from the University of Missouri in Columbia. Bell went on to earn an Education Specialists degree from William Woods in 2008.
Psychology was her first major as she knew she wanted to work with people to help them.
“I really didn’t consider becoming a teacher at first because I always felt my teachers put me down, but I found my calling in working with the little people and raising them up,” said Bell. “I felt the need to be an advocate for my students. I want all my students to be the best people they can be so I push for what they need.”
While finishing up her student teaching, Bell was offered a job in Moberly teaching special education. This assignment would lead to her appointment to Early Childhood Special Education where she was in charge of 12 school districts.
Her next move was to Hallsville where she spent 12 years teaching Early Childhood Education. During her time in Hallsville, she was in charge of special education, the gifted program, all federal programs section 504 and worked as the Assistant Superintendent.
Bell next worked for the Alton/Thayer School District as a math, FACS, English and journalism teacher. She next went to St. Charles where she was employed by the Francis Howell School District as a Parents As Teachers instructor.
“I wanted to teach because it was a chance to touch the future,” said Bell. “I became interested in child development when I was pregnant with our first child. By working with the little people, I was able to shape the future one child at a time. I wanted to build people up to discover the tremendous skills within them.”
When her husband Loren accepted the position of minister of the First United Methodist Church in Warsaw, Bell accepted a teaching position with Warsaw R-9 as a pre-school teacher.
“I thought I was marrying a college professor and then after seven years of marriage and two children, Loren spent two months in England working on his dissertation and came home and announced he had received the call to go into the ministry,” said Bell. “We will be married 35 years this summer and he has been a minister for 23 years.”
Now, Rev. Whetsell’s calling will take Lucy to England as the United Methodist Conference is loaning his services to British Methodist Church where he will rotate between four churches every Sunday.
“We both always loved British history and we look forward to this adventure,” said Bell. “We will be in England for at least five years and after that it depends on God’s calling.”
Bell and Whetsell are the parents of two children. Their daughter Lindsay Brennan, 32, and her husband Jordan live in St. Louis with their son Leander, 6. Their son Torsten Whetsell, 25, is a software engineer for GM in Southfield, Michigan.
Both Lindsay and Torsten plan to visit their parents in England and Leander will spend a month during the summer with them.
“The church is supplying us with a four-bedroom house so all of our family plans to visit,” said Bell. “God has a plan for us and we will go where God is calling us. I am sure I will always be working with children as I have felt that was my calling.”
