A Sunday Tragedy : Victim in Fatal Assault Mourned as Dedicated Schoolteacher and Volunteer

Isabelle McLean stood on the sidewalk of the tree-lined street outside the First Congregational Church here after services last Sunday, just as she had done many times in the last 41 years.

But it was to be the last time. Miss McLean, 79, died Tuesday, two days after a man approached her, asked the time, then grabbed her purse and knocked her to the ground.

She died in Corona Community Hospital from the shock and hypertension caused by the assault, Riverside County Deputy Coroner Bill Kyle said.

The death of the retired schoolteacher and community volunteer has saddened residents and bewildered Corona police, who have no witnesses or suspects in the robbery turned murder.

sh ‘Hard to Believe’

“It’s hard to believe somebody would do that to another person,” said Wendy Nelson, Miss McLean’s niece. “She was such a vital person. It’s just a shame that something like that had to happen to her. She was so full of life.”

Miss McLean told police she was approached on the sidewalk by a white man with brown hair and a “dirty appearance.” She described her assailant as about 5 feet, 4 inches tall, weighing 120 pounds and between 25 and 30 years old.

After snatching the purse containing $40 and credit cards, the man walked away quickly down the sidewalk, she told police.

Following the assault, she complained of pain in her hip and scratches on her arms and was taken by ambulance to the hospital.

sh Scheduled for Surgery

She had been scheduled to undergo an operation on her fractured hip, said Richard Pershing, the hospital’s director of community relations.

Described by friends as quiet, responsible and dedicated, Miss McLean was a member of various church and civic groups and had been a volunteer with the Corona Community Hospital Auxiliary since 1971.

Joan Reed, director of volunteers at the hospital, said Miss McLean’s death was a “tremendous loss. Every person in this organization will feel the impact of her death.”

She said Miss McLean was named Volunteer of the Year in 1979 and just recently was awarded honorary membership on the Civic Advisory Committee for her years of service to the community.

sh Long Career as Teacher

Reed described her as “dedicated to whatever she decided to do.”

Miss McLean taught in an elementary school in the Corona-Norco Unified School District from 1929 to 1971. Taking a few years off from teaching, she did social medical work for the Red Cross in Fresno in 1946. In 1949-50, she served as an exchange teacher in England.

“This was an extension of her teaching career. A lot of other volunteers had been her students,” Reed said.

“I think Isabelle needed to be busy and this gave her something to do. She was liked by the whole hospital, not just volunteers.”

sh Educational Pioneer

Reed said Miss McLean was one of the first people in Corona to teach English as a second language to migrant workers’ children, before it became a part of school curriculum.

“She was a disciplinarian, but they (students) respected her,” Reed added.

Edgar Cook, pastor at the church where Miss McLean had been a member since 1945, said her death “shook everybody an awful lot.” Cook said he questioned church members about the incident after Sunday services, but learned nothing.

Apparently church members leaving services came out of the church just minutes after the attack on Miss McLean, who did not attend the coffee hour with others at the church that Sunday, Cook said.

Miss McLean is also survived by her sister, Alice Tempelen. Funeral services are being arranged by Miss McLean’s niece today at the Thomas Miller Mortuary.