Barbara Bray Kratz, 93, formerly of Lansdale, retired kindergarten teacher

Barbara Bray Kratz, 93, formerly of Lansdale, a retired kindergarten teacher who served doughnuts and coffee to the troops in Europe during World War II, died Wednesday, Sept. 21, at Peter Becker Retirement Community in Harleysville.

Mrs. Kratz graduated from Upper Darby High School. After earning a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1939, she taught first grade in Upper Darby.

In 1943, she joined the American Red Cross and directed a club for servicemen in England before being assigned to a so-called Clubmobile. The vehicles, outfitted with generators and cooking equipment, followed troops in France, Belgium, and Germany.

In January 1945 the Evening Bulletin published a letter she wrote to her parents describing her duties near the German border.

"We have been working madly cooking day and night to serve the huge convoys of men on their way back from the front, sometimes two and three thousand a day," she wrote. "We serve them as their convoys make a half-hour stop to gas up - huge chow lines, music blaring forth and a continuous stream of grimy, grinning faces."

Mrs. Kratz met her future husband, A. Granville Kratz, when he was in the Army in Germany. They married in 1946 and raised a family in Lansdale. When their children were grown, she returned to the classroom and taught kindergarten in the North Penn School District from 1968 to 1982.

After retiring, she volunteered in the school district's Art Goes to School program for 10 years and was a docent at the Peter Wentz Farmstead in Worcester. She and her grandmother and mother were all accomplished quilters, and she was active in the Homemakers' Country Quilters until she was 90, according to son Allen. She was a founder of the Lansdale branch of the American Association of University Women.

Mrs. Kratz and her husband hosted foreign-exchange students, including those from France, Italy, Sweden, and Japan. On subsequent trips abroad, the couple visited the homes of former students.

In addition to her son, Mrs. Kratz is survived by son Michael; daughters Karen Kratz-Miller and Sue Clemens; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 1998.

A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 24, at St. John's United Church of Christ, 500 W. Main St., Lansdale, Pa. 19446. Friends may call at 1 p.m. at the church, where Mrs. Kratz was a Sunday school teacher, served on the Women's Guild, and was a founder and volunteer for Manna on Main Street, a program to feed the needy.

Donations may be made to the church's music fund.