Thompson

Eleanor Pearl Thompson 66, formerly of Liberty Street Extension in Grove City and Wayne Street in Butler, died at 9:45 a.m. Wednesday at Orchard Manor in Pine Township, Mercer County, following an valiant battle with Alzheimer's disease.

Her life began Nov. 19, 1942, on the Red Brush Road, near Coaltown in Cherry Township. She was the daughter of Herman Richard Thompson and Amy Henrietta McConnell Thompson.

Her first job was at the Hot Dog Shop in downtown Butler. She then worked for Bobbie Brooks Apparel Manufacturing in Butler and later as an assembler for Mine Safety Appliance (MSA) of Evans City. She then worked in the housekeeping department at Butler Memorial Hospital and in her 15 years of employment there, she called off work only three times.

Eleanor loved to paint with oil on canvas and sold a lot of her paintings. One year, her mother entered her in a contest at the Big Butler Fair for paintings of McConnells Mill. She won a blue ribbon and a lady from California bought the painting.

Eleanor took literacy classes at the Butler Library and taught her father how to read. He had to quit school in fourth grade to work on the farm and had never learned to how to read.

A proud moment in Eleanor's life was seeing her son, David, graduate from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York as an engineer.

She loved to garden and had a huge terrace flower garden behind her house on Wayne Street. She built it over many years, one plant or rock at a time. She would sit there with her dog, Candy, and paint Wayne Street.

She had a heart of gold and worked hard her whole life.

Let us all pray that someday soon, in our lifetime, there will be a cure for Alzheimer's disease.

She was a Methodist and had attended the Branchton United Methodist.

Surviving are two sons and their spouses, Donald James and Nancy Thompson of Butler and David Alan and Linda Thompson of Upton, Mass.; three sisters and their spouses, Elizabeth "Betty" and Clarence Herold of Prospect, Mary and William Wilson of Barkeyville and Erma and Robert Knight of Grove City; a brother and his wife, James and Diane Thompson of Grove City; four grandchildren, Amy, Lisa, Jack and Owen Thompson; and a great-grandson, Aiden Thompson

She was preceded in death by her parents.

<B>THOMPSON</B> — Visitation for Eleanor Pearl Thompson, who died Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009, will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday and from 10 a.m. until time of the service at 11 a.m. Saturday at the <B>Smith Funeral Home</B>, 421 New Castle St., Slippery Rock. The Rev. Stephanie Thompson, chaplain of Orchard Manor Nursing Center, will officiate. Interment will be in the Slippery Rock Cemetery.Memorial contributions may be made to Sunshine Way Unit, Orchard Manor, 20 Orchard Drive, Grove City PA 16127.