High school gets donation of bestsellers from Waugh family

Ilean Waugh’s love of reading will live on at Berkeley Springs High School from the gift of over 800 of her bestseller books that her family donated in her memory.

Waugh, retired West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources social worker and community volunteer, passed away on September 30. She was a 1952 graduate of Berkeley Springs High School.

The high school received complete sets of works of authors such as John Grisham, Danielle Steele, Sidney Sheldon, Nora Roberts, Sandra Brown and James Patterson.

They also acquired the number one best sellers of the Oprah Winfrey book club, said high school library media and technology integration specialist Teresa Yost.

Waugh’s children Tanya Lineweaver, Angela Gaither and Lewis Waugh boxed up all of the hard-back books and loaded them onto Lewis Waugh’s truck and brought them to the school.

Lineweaver said that their mom had always wanted her books to be donated somewhere where people could enjoy them. All of her books are in excellent condition.

If her mom got a new book, she’d be done reading it in a day or two, Lineweaver said.

“Reading was her passion,” she said.

Yost said they were thrilled to get the books, all of which are ones that the kids read. The books were things that she never would have been able to buy for the library.

Waugh loved to read and wanted kids to love reading too, Lineweaver said.
Her mom helped a lot of families through her job at the Department of Health and Human Resources in Berkeley Springs and aided families in Paw Paw after the 1985 flood, Lineweaver said.

Waugh did a lot with their Angel Tree holiday program that is through the Salvation Army. Lineweaver and her husband got involved in the program through her mother and they adopt a few kids every year at Christmastime, she said.

Waugh also helped at kindergarten registration, worked the voting polls on Election Day and was a volunteer for the American Red Cross.
Yost said they were honored by the family’s donation.

“She was a pretty important part of the community,” Yost said of Waugh.