Arlene Darrah

Arlene W Darrah, age 84 of Cedar Crest Village in Pompton Plains, formerly of Wayne, passed Tuesday, May 7, 2019.

She was born in Jersey City and lived in Lyndhurst, before moving to Wayne, where she lived for fifty-five years, before moving to Cedar Crest Village in Pompton Plains. Her family was associated with Wayne for many years before they moved there permanently, as they would spend summers along the Passaic River in the Hoffman Grove section of Wayne.

Arlene graduated from the Catherine Gibbs Secretarial School in Montclair and worked as a legal administrative assistant in the Passaic County Courthouse, for the Hon. Burrell Ives Humphreys.  She later worked for the Hon. Howard H. Kestin, who was a New Jersey Superior Court Judge and later Appellate Judge in Hackensack.  Arlene and Judge Kestin worked together for over twenty years, before her retirement in 1995.

Arlene was a member of the Calvary Gospel Church in Wayne for over forty years and she was dedicated to her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. She was a member and previously served as the Secretary of the Wayne Golden Age and was a member of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Wayne Elks Lodge 2181 for many years.

Arlene will be remembered as a very loving and fun-loving person.  She was an extremely dependable and family-oriented woman. As a single working mother for sixteen years, she was dedicated to her children beyond words, and always put their needs before her own.  She loved reading, singing, dancing, traveling and spending time with her children and grandchildren.

Arlene was the loving wife of thirty years to the late James Darrah (2007); loving mother of Craig Jackson of Totowa and Laura Jackson-Jahnke and her husband Jim of Belle Meade; she was the cherished grandmother of Ryan and his wife Sarah Jahnke, Rachel Jahnke, and Monica and Nicolas Jackson. She was also the dear sister of Eleanor Stuart of Trinity, Florida and the late Richard Johnson of Bloomingdale, NJ, and she leaves behind many loving nieces and nephews.