Elaine Stelzenmueller

Elaine Rosa Stelzenmueller, age 86, an over sixty year resident of Wayne, passed Monday, March 29, 2021.

Elaine was born in Paterson to Charles and Rosa Possien.  She attended Pequannock Grammar School and graduated from Butler High School with the Class of 1952 and continued her education at Drew University and William Paterson State Teachers College in Wayne.

Elaine was employed by the Paterson Evening News and rose quickly from a “Copy Girl” to “Society Editor.” She was a Charter Member of the New Jersey Association of Daily Newspaper Women.  For a brief time, before starting their family, she was the Assistant Editor of the Suburban Trends. Writing and editing came naturally to Elaine and she wrote and edited newspapers and newsletters all her life at camps, schools and churches.

She was dedicated to her Christian faith and through the years she was a member of the Pequannock Reformed Church in Wayne where she served several terms on the Consistories and was later a member of the First Reformed Church in Pompton Plains.  Elaine loved to sing and was a member of choirs everywhere she went.  At one time she went on vacation with her church choir and family, including three grandchildren, to Scotland where she sang at several venues.

Elaine met Walter Stelzenmueller while working at the Paterson Evening News.  For their first date Walter wanted to impress Elaine and attempted to bring her to a movie in New York City. When the day came it was snowing like crazy.  He drove from his home in Fairlawn to hers in Pequannock and they decided to see the movie in Suffern New York as that would be an easier drive in the snow.  After battling through the snow, doing a 360degree spinout on the way home from the movie, Walter got Elaine home safely. While in her driveway she looked at him and said “I saw that movie last week with another guy.”  While at work one day Elaine came over to Walter and asked if she could tell another guy, who was asking her on a date, that she was going steady with him.  He said yes and they soon fell deeply in love and married on April 21, 1956 at the Pequannock Reformed Church in Wayne.  They honeymooned in Virginia Beach, Virginia where Walter remembers drawing a heart in the sand and wrote both their names backwards so when he took the picture they would come out correctly.  When he developed the film weeks later he realized that the camera didn’t turn the letters around and the photo was of the heart and two names backwards. Those early memories, and many more, weaved into a sixty-five year marriage that was blessed with three children. Many fond memories were made while the family camped for a few weeks each summer.  This was a tradition for some twenty-five years.  Trips to Assateague State Park in Maryland, vacations in Delaware, and even trips as far as Estes Park in Colorado, with forty member of the Pequannock Reformed Church, were where many family memories were made without the distraction of the day – television. Through the years they progressed from an eighteen foot trailer to a twenty-one foot trailer, then to a stationary trailer in a resort park in Delaware. For a few years they even had a boat they would put into the water there.  The children also remember Car Picnics in the winter where they would take a day trip to go sleigh riding or just an adventure somewhere other than home. Those family memories and the associated bonding will always be treasured.

Elaine was the beloved wife of Walter, blessed in marriage for sixty-five years. She was the loving mother of: Lisa and husband Darren Mackey of Wayne, Lori Rose Stelzenmueller Osborne of Wayne, and Kurt Walter Stelzenmueller and his life partner Lori Gabriele of Kinnelon; cherished grandmother of: Ryan Daniel Mackey, Trevor Jordan Mackey and his fiancé Nicole Smith, David Darren Mackey, Devon Joshua Mackey, Emilee Rose Osborne, Korina Ruth Stelzenmueller, and Kylee Elaine Stelzenmueller; dear sister of the late Donald Possien the late Kenneth Possien and his surviving wife Lorraine. She is also survived by several loving nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers donations, in Elaine's memory, can be made to:  Elaine Stelzenmueller Fund for First Reformed Church, 529 Newark Pompton Tpke, Pompton Plains, NJ 07444.