Nancy Burchfield Denney

Nancy Burchfield Denney of Oakmont PA died peacefully on February 19, 2025 just shy of age 95. She was pre-deceased by her husband Thomas "Tom" Lilley Denney who died March 4, 2022. Nancy was born on March 24, 1930 in Pittsburgh PA to Clarissa Margaret Wainwright and Albert Horne Burchfield Jr., former President of the Joseph Horne Company in Pittsburgh PA. Nancy is survived by three children, ten grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren: daughter Linda Denney Wagner (Steven) of Washington DC and their five children [Ashley (Stephen) and two children (Everette and Lillian), Preston, Jamie, Ned, Katie]; son Thomas "Tim" Lilley Denney Jr. (Valerie) of Berlin, Germany and their two children [Thomas, Sophia]; son Edward "Ned" Burchfield Denney (Jennifer) of Boston MA and their three children [Miles, Sam, Luc].
Nancy was born in Pittsburgh PA where she spent most of her life and attended The Ellis School for Grades K-9, Ethel Walker School in Simsbury CT for high school, and graduated from Bennett College in Millbrook NY in 1951. After college she moved briefly to NYC to study at the New York School for Interior Design and then returned to Pittsburgh in 1952 to volunteer at Children's Hospital and WQED while also working for Dwight D. Eisenhower's national election campaign conducting voter registrations. During the Pittsburgh Steel Strike of 1952 Nancy began working at the Joseph Horne Company where she met her husband Tom who was serving in the U.S. Army and was visiting the store to purchase his first business suit.
Nancy and Tom married in February 1953 and spent their first six months living in Williamsburg VA where Tom was stationed with the U.S. Army Transportation Corps. The couple moved to Boston in the fall of 1953 where Tom attended Harvard Business School and where they celebrated the birth of their first child. In 1955 the family moved to Rochester NY for Tom's business career and lived in Fairport NY. Two more children were born and in 1961, upon the death of Nancy's father, the family moved back to Pittsburgh PA where the couple remained for the rest of their married lives, moving to homes in Squirrel Hill, Fox Chapel, and finally to Longwood at Oakmont Senior Living Community.
Nancy devoted her life to family, friends, church, and volunteer work. She adored her pets. She volunteered for 23 years in various active roles at Holmes House in Lawrenceville, the 100+ year old Pittsburgh organization whose mission had been to care for the incurably ill and indigent. Nancy was also an active and devoted volunteer at many other organizations which matched her interests in gardening, nature conservancy, animal welfare, the arts and music. She maintained memberships at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Frick Foundation, Pittsburgh Symphony, Phipps Conservancy and WQED.
As a long-time parishioner of Calvary Episcopal Church, Nancy served in many various roles including as a President of Women of Calvary, a Sunday School teacher, serving on the Flower & Altar Guilds, and helping organize Calvary's Annual Christmas Bazaar. She also worked on community projects supported by the Junior League of Pittsburgh and Seeders & Weeders Garden Club. Nancy loved history, especially early pioneer life in America, Westward expansion, and Native American cultures. She loved the Southwest and visiting Arizona where close family friends from Pittsburgh have nurtured and developed a unique lodging for natural history enthusiasts in Cave Creek Canyon. She religiously watched PBS Nova and Nature series, Masterpiece Theater and All Creatures Great and Small. Nancy was an avid Anglophile and visited England over many years when her daughter and family lived in Surrey and Berkshire. Nancy and had even more opportunities in Europe when their eldest son married and settled in Germany.
Friends and family will remember Nancy for her steadfast loyalty, genuine kindness, sense of humor, her ready smile, and eagerness to embrace new people. She always made life-long friends wherever she went. Nancy's greatest joy was spending time with her family and friends. She and Tom travelled for as long as they were able to visit their children and grandchildren who were spread geographically afar in Boston, London, Toronto, Berlin, Washington DC, NYC, Denver and California. Nancy and Tom especially loved spending summers with family on Ahmic Lake in Ontario Canada where Nancy's family have spent summers for six generations.
A memorial service will be held on April 5 at 1pm at Calvary Episcopal Church to celebrate both Nancy and her husband Thomas L. Denney who passed away during the pandemic period when only a small private service was held. The service will be live-streamed and accessible via the church's website www.calvarypgh.org. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to: The Hydrocephalus Association, 4340 East West Highway, Suite 905, Bethesda MD 20814; WQED Multimedia at 4802 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh PA 15213; and
Calvary Episcopal Church 315 Shady Avenue Pittsburgh PA 15206. Arrangements by John A. Freyvogel Sons, Inc.
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