Kezia Bradford Vanmeter Sproat

Kezia Bradford Vanmeter Sproat, born November 8, 1937, passed peacefully at home in Chillicothe, Ohio, at 8:55 a.m on May 9, 2026. Preceded by her sister, Cornelia Sisson Vanmeter Metzger; father, Joseph Vause Vanmeter; ex-husband and friend John Odum Wilhelm Sproat; mother, Helen Orr Janes Vanmeter; brother, John Inskeep Vanmeter; and son-in-law, Tarik El-Maraghy. Kezia is survived by her daughters Cornelia Sproat (Gordon Nichols); Eliza Sproat; granddaughters Hadiya and Laila El-Maraghy; sister Mary Vause Vanmeter Gordon (John); sister-in-law Emma Cooper Vanmeter, ten beloved nieces and nephews, and 16 grandnieces and grandnephews. She was foremost a proud grandmother, mom, daughter, sister, aunt, and friend. She attended Chillicothe High School for two years and graduated from Laurel School and Vassar College. Though her thesis was not supported by advisors at OSU in the mid-1970s, she received the Florence Howe award from the Modern Language Association in 1975 for her PhD, "A Reappraisal of Shakespeare's View of Women". She taught comparative literature at OSU; edited at the Center for Human Resource Research, where she proposed and implemented an annotated bibliography for the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience (then annual) publication. She also edited at Ross Laboratories where she ghost-wrote for then Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. She later founded Sproat Communications Corp; Perfectly Frank Communicators, and Highbank Farm Peace Education Center. She thrived via her early association with Columbus' Women's Poetry Workshop (WPW). Before OSU's Center for the Arts existed, she co-founded the Community Film Association (CFA) with Dennis Aig. CFA welcomed Jesse Owens, Frank Capra, and Jim Jarmusch. After she moved back to Chillicothe in 1998, she became active in the garden club, choir, bridge club, and developed the financially successful mini-reunions at Vassar. She broadened her East Coast classmates' appreciation for the Hopewell culture decades before Ohio’s Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Arrangements are under the direction of WARE FUNERAL HOME. A memorial will be held Sunday, June 7 at First Presbyterian Church of Chillicothe, 13 Mead Drive, 45601. Visitation 2 pm - 3 pm; service 3 pm - 4 pm. You may sign her online register at www.warefh.com

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to https://www.sojournerscare.net/help-sojourners/.

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