Dorothy C. Vasilenko

Dorothy C. Vasilenko, age 94 of Gettysburg, PA and a long-time former resident of Wayne, passed away on Wednesday, April 3, 2019.

Dot was born in her grandmother’s house in Garfield, NJ. The oldest of three children, Dot remembered moving to Saddle Brook and sitting in front of the coal stove in the kitchen - the only means of heat in the apartment, and putting her feet in the opening of the oven while doing homework. As a child, Calvin Coolidge was President, a candy bar cost five cents, movies were fifteen cents, and gas for the car was eleven cents per gallon.

Dot had wonderful childhood memories of her Grandma Toth who was a great cook and baker. She used to love watching her Grandma when she baked apple strudel – stretching the dough around the table and, every year, she made Dot a peach and whipped cream cake for her birthday.

Growing up and being a teenager during World War II, many of Dot’s relatives and friends were in service, especially in the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy. She herself was a USO member and she and her friend Ruth would dance with the servicemen on Friday’s at the YWCA in Passaic while her mother served refreshments.

Dot’s first job was during the summer between her junior and senior year of high school. She worked in the office of Botany Woolen Mills typing and filing. She attended Lodi High School where she was secretary in the National Honor Society and a three year member. She graduated with the Class of 1942 and, over the course of her life she worked numerous places with favorites being: at the U.S. Rubber Company in Passaic where she especially liked doing lots and lots of steno, and for Bonland, Inc. – Sheet Metal Contractors in Wayne where she was secretary to the president and also editor of the Bonland monthly newsletter.

Dot met her husband Pete through her Aunt Helen and Uncle Steve who lived next door to Pete. Their first encounter was not face to face. Instead it was a conversation on the phone. They talked for an hour and, as Dot would later tell her children while in a reminiscing mood, “It just clicked!”  The next day Pete picked up Dot for their first date and she was especially impressed when he pulled up in his new car. Ironically, that car broke down on that date, but their relationship never broke down. Contrarily, it got better and better. Six months after they started seeing each other, Peter Vasilenko Jr. and Dorothy Markert became Mr. and Mrs. Peter and Dorothy Vasilenko as they married on Saturday, September 17, 1949 at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Passaic. The hot band at the time was Glenn Miller’s Orchestra and the hottest dance was the jitterbug. Their first home together was in an apartment on the second floor of Pete’s parent’s home in Garfield where the rent was twenty five dollars a month. The following year they purchased their own home for $12,000. Then, in 1960, they moved to Wayne where they remained for the next 51 years. During the course of their marriage, Pete and Dot were blessed with three children – Nancy, Peter, and Susan. They enjoyed a sweet marriage of 34 years until Pete’s passing in 1983. As Dot would say, the secret to their marital bliss was due to the daily practice of always loving each other, expressing that love with words and trusting one another.

Dot was a great mom who gave her children a loving upbringing and a welcoming home to grow up in. She enjoyed instituting traditions like having all the family gathered for birthday parties, Santa at the house at Christmas to hand out all the presents, always having homemade cookies for Christmas because “They were the best”, filling Easter baskets that Peter had blessed at the Russian church, and having a big turkey and pumpkin pies, yams and mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving. She and Peter were true believers in engaging their kids in vacations that enriched the mind. Thus, over the course of their upbringing, family vacations were to numerous destinations including Williamsburg, VA, Gettysburg, PA, Boston, MA, Mystic Seaport, the Bronx Zoo, Cape Cod, and Lake George to name a few.

Home-baked Christmas cookies were “the best” because Dot was such a skilled baker. She loved to cook and bake and always helped out at church for special affairs and lunches. She always remembered how her husband Peter would say after a Thanksgiving meal, “You really did a great job Sweetheart.” She also really enjoyed and was good at counted cross stitch, quilting and macramé, and she loved collecting teapots, owls and Santas.

In many respects, Dot’s life could be described as a life of service. She was an active member and former president of the American Legion Auxiliary, Unit 255 in Garfield, NJ. She was an assistant Girl Scout leader during the late 1950’s, she taught Sunday school in both St. John’s Lutheran Church in Passaic, NJ and in St. Timothy Lutheran Church in Wayne, NJ, and she was also a long-time member of the Miriam Circle and a member of the Council at St. Timothy’s church.

Dot’s faith is Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior was extremely important to her. Her faith journey lessons included, never giving up, keeping your faith, believing and praying always!

Dorothy was the beloved wife of Peter Vasilenko, Jr., blessed in marriage for 34 years until his passing in 1983. She was the loving mother of Nancy Vasilenko of Gettysburg, PA, Dr. Peter Vasilenko, III and wife Carol Anne Fuller-Vasilenko of Gettysburg, PA, and the late Susan Vasilenko-Wilson (1995); cherished grandmother of Dr. Sara Anne Vasilenko and Reverend Christin Rose Vasilenko Fawcett and husband Luke; adoring great-grandmother of Louisa Rae and Penelope Violet Fawcett; dear sister of the late Fred Markert and the late Robert Markert.

In lieu of flowers, those planning an expression of sympathy in Dorothy’s name are asked to consider St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memorial Processing, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105-9959, or online at stjude.org