Welchley

Eileen G. Stillwagon Welchley, 87, of Butler died Thursday at UPMC Cranberry Place.

Born March 11, 1922, in Bruin, she was a daughter of the late Mark and Mary Harriet Smith Stillwagon.

She attended St. Peter's School in Butler and was a 1939 graduate of Butler High School.

At the age 17, she got a job in Harrisburg working as a mimeograph operator for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Labor and Industry, Research and Information Duplicating Division for three years.

While in Harrisburg, she met her future husband, Herbert F. Welchley of New Orleans, La., at a Catholic USO dance. He was a tank gunner in the 3rd Armored Division in the European theater of World War II.

Later she returned to Western Pennsylvania and was employed at various office jobs, payroll clerk at the Bantam Car Co. in Butler and clerk-typist at Jones & Laughlin Steel in Pittsburgh. She received the Army-Navy E Award for excellence during the war while at the Bantam Car Co. Later she attended comptometer school in Harrisburg.

After World War II, Herb Welchley came to Pittsburgh, and they were married Dec. 26, 1945. They moved to New Orleans, where their two children, Mark and Maureen, were born in 1947 and 1950. In 1953, Eileen and her family returned to Pennsylvania and lived on East Brady Street in Butler.

Eileen, usually called "Eenie," worked as a homemaker and loving mother. She liked reading, gardening, cooking and had a talent for drawing.

She was a member of the St. Peter Roman Catholic Church in Butler and loved attending church services.

Her husband preceded her in death on July 27, 2000.

Surviving are her children and their spouses, Mark H. and Taffy A. Welchley of Center Township, Beaver County, and Maureen and Harry Pakutz of Butler; and her grandchildren, Andrea and Jonathan Pakutz, both of Butler. Numerous nieces and nephews also survive her.

She was the last surviving member of her immediate family and was preceded in death by three brothers, Bernard, John and Mark Stillwagon; and five sisters, Rosemary Smith, Harriet Oswald, Roberta "Pootsie" Weiland, Madeline "Pinky" Geibel and Gertrude "Babe" Kurtz.

<B>WELCHLEY </B>— Friends of Eileen G. Stillwagon Welchley, who died Thursday, Feb. 18, 2010, will be received from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday at the <B>Geibel Funeral Home</B>, 201 E. Cunningham St., Butler. A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Monday at St. Paul Roman Catholic Church in Butler. Interment will follow at the Calvary Cemetery.The St. Paul Guild and Christian Mothers will meet at 9:40 a.m. Monday at the church to recite the rosary.Information also is available at www.geibelfuneralhome.com.