Eleanor Mensonides

Eleanor Mensonides, nee Bhend, aged 74, of Vernon, New Jersey, passed Thursday, October 10, 2024, surrounded by her loving family.

Eleanor was born to Joseph and Ruth Bhend in Paterson and graduated from Kinnelon High School with the class of 1966. 

Eleanor’s first job was as a cashier for the A&P in the Meadtown Shopping Center in Kinnelon, followed by various waitressing jobs, working in supermarkets, and eventually for the Township of Vernon, as its first Recycling Coordinator.  She then moved to the Sussex County Municipal Utilities Authority (SCMUA) as Assistant Recycling Coordinator and Enforcement.  She later joined the Sussex County Health Department as a County Health Inspector, where she continued to serve her community.  She drafted some of the legislation governing wasteflow regulation, which has had immeasurable impact on keeping our landfills free of illegally transported or dumped material.  In keeping with her interest in protecting our lands she became involved in town and county matters, running twice for Township Committee in Vernon, sitting on the Economic Development Commission for Vernon, serving on the Sussex County Solid Waste Advisory Council (SWAC) for twenty-seven years and twenty-two years on the Sussex County Water Quality Policy Advisory Committee (PAC).

Never has the fiery redhead reputation been better earned than by Eleanor.  Anyone who knew her for more than a few minutes realized she was a force to be reckoned with, and it was so much better for your cause if you had her in your corner.  She was smart, savvy, and shrewd.  If she believed in something, she dove in with both feet, overcame any obstacles, and saw her passion projects through to the end.  Case in point, the proposed burial of yards and yards of radium tainted soil within Vernon’s farmland in 1986.  She was one of the local firebrands who went to Trenton to protest the judgement to dump the tainted soil without the town being represented in court.  She also was involved in fundraising for two township residents to help with the medical costs associated with their liver transplants. Through all this she was a person who was always ready with a smile, a contagious laugh, and a great sense of humor.  She laughed loudest at herself and laughed best with friends and family.

Eleanor met her one true love as a teenager at The Cave under the clubhouse in Fayson Lakes. She and Rudi were married on April 27, 1968, by the Reverend Bernardine Kessing at St. Anthony’s RC Church on Bartholdi Avenue in Butler after Rudi’s tour in Vietnam.  They settled in Bloomingdale’s Morris Lakes neighborhood, where they had their two daughters, Monica and Melissa.  The family soon moved to the Netherlands to be close to Rudi’s family, then to the Barry Lakes section of Vernon, followed by another move to Dordrecht, Netherlands, and finally back to Vernon, where they have lived since 1980.  Rudi and Ellie’s love lasts beyond the fifty-six years of their marriage.

Ellie is predeceased by her parents, Joseph and Ruth Bhend, and her brother Joseph.  She is survived by her beloved husband Rudi Mensonides, sister JoAnna Sheridan-Costanzo, brother Robert Bhend, daughters Monica Rolando, Melissa Mensonides, grandchildren Robert Brochhausen, Brandie Rolando, Victoria Costa, and Dion Rolando, as well as her large extended family. Her passing leaves a hole in the hearts of her family, and she will be missed beyond words.

In lieu of flowers memorial donations to the American Heart Association would be greatly appreciated.