CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A former teachers union leader in Kanawha County died last week.

Iva Jewell Wilburn, 75, was president of the Kanawha County Education Association for six years. She was also a teacher at Grandview Elementary School in North Charleston for nearly three decades, according to a Charleston Gazette story when Wilburn retired in 2001.

Just before she retired, Wilburn helped persuade Kanawha school board members to repeal automatic pay increases for school administrators.

"I didn't see why some central office administrator with two or three years of experience should make more than a teacher with 30 years of experience," Wilburn said in 2001. "It didn't make sense to me then. It doesn't make sense to me now."