Sheridan native Candace Shovlain Leyton, 54, died of breast cancer Sunday, Feb. 16, 2003, at her residence in Vienna, Va. Funeral services will be 1 p.m. Saturday in Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Vienna. Mrs. Leyton was born July 6, 1948, in Chadron, Neb., to E.R. (Scoop) Shovlain and Georgia Shovlain. She was a 1966 graduate of Sheridan High School, where she was an honor student. She graduated from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 1970 and received a master's degree in learning disabilities in 1977 from George Mason University.

She began her teaching career in Fairfax County, Va., in 1971 and was elected to the advisory board of the Virginia Council of Teachers of Mathematics. She was a frequent presenter at math conferences and workshops in the early 1990s. She participated in the first national teachers group trained by New York's Metropolitan Opera to develop children's opera.

She was a member of Emmanuel Lutheran Church and its Sanctuary Choir in Vienna. Survivors include her husband, Peter S. of Vienna; two children, Craig H. of Charlotte, N.C., and Vanessa E. of Vienna; and one sister, Kaleen Shovlain Gilstad.