Gretchen L. Kaplan Hostetter

Gretchen L. Kaplan Hostetter, 63, of 1645 Grandview Road, Mount Joy, died Friday at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey. She was the wife of Todd A. Hostetter.

Born in Fountain Springs, Sept. 4, 1945, she was a daughter of Walter Kaplan and Dorothy Gulliver Kaplan Salve.

Over the years, she was employed as an opthalmology medical secretary for David Farber, MD, Reading; an admissions secretary for The Alpine in Hersey; as the opthalmology head clinical secretary at Hershey Medical Center; a custom chocolate molder and decorator for Hershey Chocolate World; a floral designer at Bob's Flower Shop, Elizabethtown; a greenhouse attendant and designer for Martin's Greenhouse, Mastersonville; and as a loyal volunteer at the Mount Joy Gift & Thrift Shop.

She graduated from Schuylkill Haven High School in 1963 and from York Junior College. She loved flowers, gardening, flower arranging, cooking, baking with the neighborhood children, ice cream, miniature golfing, antiquing for fine china, ironstone and tin, crafts, counted cross stitch, nature walks, playing Scrabble, board games and cards, entertaining her family and friends and traveling with her family, especially on their yearly vacation to the beach in Cape Code, Mass.

She was preceded her in death by her parents.

Surviving, in addition to her loving husband, Todd, are her daughter, Jenne L., wife of Edward C. Frackelton, Philadelphia; her brother, Walter R. Kaplan, Cape Cod, Mass.; a niece, Tara Marini; a nephew, Brad Kaplan; her aunt, Emma Louise Wildman.

Visitation time will be from 9 to 11 a.m. Friday at the Trinity United Church of Christ, 40 W. Pine St., Palmyra. It will be followed by her memorial service at 11 a.m. in the church with the Rev. Leonard S. Knighton officiating. Interment will be private in Schuylkill Memorial Park, Schuylkill Haven. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations be given to The Four Diamonds Fund, c/o Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, PO Box 850, Hershey, PA 17033 or to The National Parkinson's Foundation, 122 E. 42nd St., Suite 2806, New York, NY 10017, or to the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, SICU Research, 500 University Drive, Hershey, PA 17033, Hill United Church of Christ, 3801 Hill Church Road, Lebanon, PA 17042, or to Mount Joy Gift & Thrift Shop, 413 W. Main St., Mount Joy, PA 17552.

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