Elaine M. “Pat” Alderson, 88 of Brick Township, passed away Tuesday, October 28, 2025 at her home with family present. She was born in Orange, New Jersey to parents, Theodore and Gertrude Nanz. She grew up at 733 Kingston Avenue in Kenilworth and graduated from Dayton Regional High School in Springfield before moving to Brick in 1960.
Elaine met her late husband, James , while he was stationed at McGuire AFB in New Jersey. Coincidentally, the viewing will be held on their 68th anniversary. In 1960, James and Elaine bought a house at 540 Pennsylvania Avenue among the pitch pines and chestnut oaks of the growing Hollywood Manor neighborhood, aka “the State streets”. They raised 5 children, several neighborhood children and one grandson while residing there for 65 years. Elaine was a member of St. Paul’s Church on Herbertsville Road for many years.
Elaine’s life was centered around taking care of her family and she never took a sick day from it. From her control room in the kitchen, she made everything run, supporting her husband’s work and her kids’ endeavors…simultaneously packing lunches, ironing pants, and brewing more ice-tea. Then ferrying kids to sporting events in her big Dodge van she affectionately named Sam.
Elaine loved the holidays and instilled it in her children. She always went big with decorations and presents…and never forgot a birthday. She also enjoyed gardening in her backyard, cultivating her flowers, rhubarb, gooseberry bushes, and one indomitable wisteria bush.
Elaine is preceded in death by her husband, James R. Alderson, parents, two sisters, Eleanor and Carol, her son, Robert Allen Alderson, sons-in-law, Louis LuBera and Ronald Lawrence, and too many cherished pets to name them all.
Left to cherish her memory are two sons, Carl W. Alderson (and wife, Susan) and James W. Alderson (and wife, Jennie); two daughters, Nancy LuBera and Lorrie Lawrence; seven grandchildren (Jesse, Cameron, Julia, Robert Andrew, Lucy, Jeremiah, and Miranda), her cousin, Betty Pfeifer of Ruston, LA, an ever-expanding family of loving in-laws based in Arkansas, the extended family that grew up in and around her home in Brick, and her cat, Indigo, who stayed at her side until the end.
Visitation will be Sunday, November 2, 2025, from 2-5 pm at Colonial Funeral Home, 2170 Hwy.88, Brick. A funeral service will be celebrated Monday at 10am with entombment to follow at Ocean County Memorial Park, at 1722 Silverton Rd, Toms River, NJ.
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