Valeria “Val” Menne, age 95, of the Packanack Lake Section of Wayne for sixty-seven years, passed peacefully on Friday, February 10, 2017.

She was born in Wyandotte, Michigan to Stanley and Rose Hojnowski. Val thoroughly enjoyed her childhood and would recall with a sly grin how her father was a bootlegger during the prohibition years! Val excelled in school and was proud to have been accepted into medical school, only to be told by her father that this wasn't a profession for girls. This in turn inspired Val to enlist in the US Army where she joined the Nurse’s Corps as an RN. While stationed in Regensburg, Germany, Val met the man who was to become her husband, Lt. Robert J. Menne, Bob was on a hospital floor after hours and Val’s first words ever to him were “What do you want?” Robert fell in love at first sight and after some persistence and patience on Bob’s part they began dating. After their first date, Bob professed "I'm going to marry you." and then he went out and purchased a pewter mug and plate set on which he had engraved "all my love". Val would chuckle that after this very romantic gesture, on their next date, he took her to the Nuremburg Trials.. He even named his Army jeep, Valeria. Bob was clearly smitten and Val allowed him to be smitten. Both were discharged in the spring and were married on October 5, 1946 at Mount Carmel Church in Wyandotte, Michigan and honeymooned in Puerto Rico and Florida. They had a classic marriage were proud to uphold traditional family values. They maintained a loving home for their children and always accepted less for themselves in order to give their children all they could.

After her military service Val worked in a Detroit, Michigan hospital and transitioned to a stay at home mom when her first daughter was born. Bob was working for the Ford Motor Company in 1950 when he was transferred to New York and they moved to the Packanack Lake Section of Wayne.

While in Wayne they were members of Holy Cross Church which is the mother Catholic Church in the township. Val and Bob were soon members of a group petitioning the church for a new location in the Packanack Lake section of the township and helped found the Immaculate Heart of Mary RC Church. Val was dedicated to her Catholic faith and a devoted founding member of Immaculate Heart of Mary. She was active with all types of organizations within the church, and most recently was a member of the church’s Lazarus Society and prayer group. She maintained her interest in nursing, often taking refresher courses and becoming a member of the Saint Joseph’s Paterson Hospital’s Auxiliary. When her two youngest children entered their high school years she re-entered the work force at the age of 55 as a Registered Nurse for Saint Vincent’s Nursing Home in Montclair. She loved nursing, but as time went on she became frustrated by all the time spent on computers and paperwork rather than time with the patients. She formally retired in 1999 from Saint Vincent’s.

Val was the loving wife of fifty-three years to the late Robert J. Menne (1999); devoted mother of the late Susan Menne (2002), Marie Menne of New York City, and Christopher Menne of Boulder, Colorado; cherished grandmother of Ted Heron and Eve Menne-Edwards; she was the loved sister of Robert Hojnowski, and the late Jerome Hojnowski, Rose Prygoski, Veronica Patalan, and Adeline Renkiewicz. She also deeply loved her nieces and nephews very much and often lamented not living closer to them. Val had an amazing circle of friends and they meant the world to her. She would say, "I am so blessed."

In lieu of flowers memorial donations to the Wounded Warrior Project, PO Box 758517, Topeka, KS 66675 would be greatly appreciated.