Eleanor M. Gaffney "Peg" Purcell

Purcell, Eleanor "Peg" M. Gaffney
Born July 8, 1917, in Glen Ridge, NJ, died April 8, 2011 at her home in Sun City, AZ. She graduated from Grover Cleveland High School (Caldwell, NJ) in 1934 and received a B.A. degree from NJ State Teachers College (now Montclair State University) in 1938. She married Howard B. Purcell in 1943. She taught science and mathematics in the public schools in Caldwell, Fairfield, and Glen Ridge, NJ, retiring in 1976, when she and her husband moved to Meshoppen, PA, and traveled widely in the US and abroad. In 1982, they moved to Sun City, AZ, where she became an expert potter, and she performed with the Leilani Hawaiian Dance Group throughout the Phoenix, AZ area. She volunteered regularly, including recording books for the blind and dyslexic and working in a charity thrift store. Her husband Howard died in 1983. Peg was a giving and accomplished person who will be sorely missed by the family and friends who knew and loved her. She is survived by a son, Bruce, daughter-in-law, Deborah and grandson, Cameron, all of Santa Rosa, CA and by a daughter, Elizabeth, of Washington, DC. Her remains will be interred at the Columbarium in Arlington National Cemetery.