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December 19, 2014
Services
Friends may visit with the family at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne, on Saturday, December 27, 2014 from 2-5 PM. A memorial service will be held at 5 PM at the funeral home, immediately following the visiting hours.
Age 93 of Wayne, died peacefully on Friday, December 19, 2014.
Thelma D. Beissel, age 93 of Wayne, died peacefully on Friday, December 19, 2014.
Thelma was raised in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, right in the heart of ‘coal-country.’ She used to reminisce about her early childhood when she would help her father mine for coal on Saturdays. Thelma and her dad would drive their Model T Ford out to the mine and her father would go down to the bottom and dig. They would remove the back wheel of the Model T and use a rope and pulley system around the truck axle to raise and lower their coal bucket from the mine. Once their truck was full of coal, they would put the wheel back on and drive home with their supply. Her family home had an outhouse and no indoor plumbing during much of her childhood. It was a very hard existence, but Thelma persevered. She took her first ‘real’ job as a teenager, working at the newly opened Weis Market in Shamokin. After getting married, Thelma moved to Illinois, living on an Army base, while her husband learned to fly B-29 bombers. At the end of the war, they lived in Shamokin, Pa. until 1956 when they moved to Clifton, NJ where they raised their four children.
Thelma was a wonderful loving mother and proudly served as honorary nurse on their block in Clifton. She bandaged up more injured kids than anyone can count and was always willing to help others. She was a Girl Scout leader with her daughters, volunteered for an untold number of causes, and donated blood often. At fifty two years old, she became a school bus driver in Clifton, raising a little extra money to put her son through college. She was simply a very kind and compassionate soul.
Thelma is survived by her four children; Barbara Orban and her husband Michael of Wayne, Kathy Beissel and her husband Bruce Bernard of Wayne, Howard Beissel and his wife Bridget of Basking Ridge, and James G. Beissel and his wife Margaret of Clifton, six grandchildren; Michael Orban and his wife Sue, Timothy Orban and his wife Beth, Jeff Orban, Conor Beissel, James Bernard and Jarret Bernard, six great-grandchildren, as well as a sister, Joan Waugh of North Carolina. She was predeceased by her husband Howard on February 8, 2009.
If you would like to send a private condolence directly to the family use this condolence section.
Friends may visit with the family at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne, on Saturday, December 27, 2014 from 2-5 PM. A memorial service will be held at 5 PM at the funeral home, immediately following the visiting hours.
December 19, 2014
Services
Friends may visit with the family at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne, on Saturday, December 27, 2014 from 2-5 PM. A memorial service will be held at 5 PM at the funeral home, immediately following the visiting hours.
Age 93 of Wayne, died peacefully on Friday, December 19, 2014.
Thelma D. Beissel, age 93 of Wayne, died peacefully on Friday, December 19, 2014.
Thelma was raised in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, right in the heart of ‘coal-country.’ She used to reminisce about her early childhood when she would help her father mine for coal on Saturdays. Thelma and her dad would drive their Model T Ford out to the mine and her father would go down to the bottom and dig. They would remove the back wheel of the Model T and use a rope and pulley system around the truck axle to raise and lower their coal bucket from the mine. Once their truck was full of coal, they would put the wheel back on and drive home with their supply. Her family home had an outhouse and no indoor plumbing during much of her childhood. It was a very hard existence, but Thelma persevered. She took her first ‘real’ job as a teenager, working at the newly opened Weis Market in Shamokin. After getting married, Thelma moved to Illinois, living on an Army base, while her husband learned to fly B-29 bombers. At the end of the war, they lived in Shamokin, Pa. until 1956 when they moved to Clifton, NJ where they raised their four children.
Thelma was a wonderful loving mother and proudly served as honorary nurse on their block in Clifton. She bandaged up more injured kids than anyone can count and was always willing to help others. She was a Girl Scout leader with her daughters, volunteered for an untold number of causes, and donated blood often. At fifty two years old, she became a school bus driver in Clifton, raising a little extra money to put her son through college. She was simply a very kind and compassionate soul.
Thelma is survived by her four children; Barbara Orban and her husband Michael of Wayne, Kathy Beissel and her husband Bruce Bernard of Wayne, Howard Beissel and his wife Bridget of Basking Ridge, and James G. Beissel and his wife Margaret of Clifton, six grandchildren; Michael Orban and his wife Sue, Timothy Orban and his wife Beth, Jeff Orban, Conor Beissel, James Bernard and Jarret Bernard, six great-grandchildren, as well as a sister, Joan Waugh of North Carolina. She was predeceased by her husband Howard on February 8, 2009.
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