Martha Wanzer

After 96 years of life, Martha (Schimkosky) Wanzer, formerly of Clearwater, Florida, went to rest on October 23, 2025 in Freehold, New Jersey, with her beloved daughter, Martha J. (Wanzer) Benedict, by her side.
Mrs. Wanzer was born on March 25, 1929, in Jamaica, Queens, and grew up on Staten Island, New York, one of four children of the late Bruno and Josephine (Menna) Schimkosky. Her father immigrated from Poland through Ellis Island and her maternal grandparents, from Italy. Mrs. Wanzer spoke fondly of large gatherings with eleven of her aunts and uncles around the outdoor kitchen at the Menna family compound on 160th Street in Queens during the Great Depression.
After graduating from Port Richmond High School in 1946, Mrs. Wanzer began her college education, first at Oswego State Teachers College, now known as SUNY Oswego, and then at Wagner College. She proudly completed her associate's degree at St. Petersburg College in Florida as a septuagenarian.
Mrs. Wanzer met her husband Walter Westley Wanzer, Jr., on the Staten Island Ferry. She worked at the snack bar, and he worked in the boiler room as a chief marine engineer (1-PCD, M.E.B.A. (AFL-CIO)). He was a Navy veteran of the Atlantic and Pacific theaters in World War II, retiring with the rank of Water Tender Petty Officer First Class. They wed in 1954 and enjoyed 38 years of marriage until his death in 1992. Mrs. Wanzer was also predeceased by her two older children: Walter Westley Wanzer III, a Merchant Marine based in Manhattan who ran guns for the Allies in the Gulf War, and Harriet Amanda Wanzer, a nurse at Staten Island Hospital, among others.
Mrs. Wanzer was for many years the playground director at De Matti Park in Rosebank, Staten Island, and also worked for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. A pillar of Catholic faith, she enjoyed an active retirement with her husband, first in Oahu, Hawaii, where she was a cook for the Bishop of Honolulu, and then at the On Top of the World community in Clearwater, Florida, where her neighbors included her late siblings, Bruno T. Schimkosky and Helen Clark; a third, Josephine L. McCallion, passed away in 2019 in Michigan. In Clearwater, Mrs. Wanzer was a eucharistic minister, led a chapter of the Red Hat Society, volunteered at the Homeless Emergency Project, and delivered Meals on Wheels. She was a scratch golfer, a tournament bowler, enjoyed the theater at home and in Branson, Missouri, played mahjong, saw her Tampa Bay Buccaneers win two Super Bowls, and read widely, enjoying Agatha Christie novels above all.
In 2010, Mrs. Wanzer relocated to Freehold to be near her daughter's family in Millstone Township. There again she joined the Red Hats and kept an active social calendar until moving into the care of the Jewish Home for Rehabilitation and Nursing, where she departed this life. She was a parishioner of St. Michael the Archangel in Clearwater and St. Rose of Lima in Freehold, among other churches. Besides her daughter Martha and her son-in-law, Paul F. Benedict, she is survived by her grandchildren Brendan C. and Erinn J. Benedict (Devin Ganey, fiancée), both of Washington, D.C. Her memory will be cherished, and she will be greatly missed.
A wake will be held at Higgins Memorial Home at 20 Center Street in Freehold from 4 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, November 13. A funeral mass will be celebrated at the Co-Cathedral of St. Robert Bellarmine at 61 Georgia Road in Freehold on Friday, November 14 at 10 a.m., followed by interment with her deceased daughter, near the graves of her son and her parents, at Ocean View Cemetery on Staten Island on November 28.