Harding, May Dunaway, 91, in Hamden on March 4, 2008, wife of the late Davis P. Harding, beloved mother of Pamela Salmon, Woodward Harding, and the late Susan Harding, sister of Anne Folwell Hart and the late Wayland Fuller Dunaway III. Survived also by her loving caregiver, Merlyn Russell. May was born in Waverly, Virginia, daughter of Wayland Fuller Dunaway and Mary Warren May. Upon completing her graduate studies at Penn State and Yale University, May pursued her lifelong devotion to the teaching of writing and literature. She taught at Southern Connecticut State College from 1955 to 1986, retiring with the distinction of Assistant Professor Emeritus of English. During these years, May published four books of poetry, I See the Line of my Life, (1973), Clearings and Favors (1976), Reassurances (1981), and Realizing (1983). A generous and dedicated teacher, May brought to her teaching and to her students the gift of herself, inspiring them with her own deeply felt poetry, nurturing with kindness their every effort, and awakening in them, with her enthusiastic encouragement, a consciousness of their own special gifts. After retirement May, an avid reader and ardent conversationalist, joyfully inspired others to write establishing and conducting writing groups throughout the community. A celebration of her life and poetry will be held on May 24, 2008 at Trinity Lutheran Church , 292 Orange Street , in New Haven at 1:00 . Arrangements in care of BEECHER & BENNETT, 2300 WHITNEY AVE. , HAMDEN .