Eleanor Whitman, Burlco agency staffer
Eleanor Zelley did not last long in elementary school. "She only got as far as second grade," a daughter, Anita Poinsett, said.
Eleanor Zelley did not last long in elementary school.
"She only got as far as second grade," a daughter, Anita Poinsett, said.
"She had contracted rheumatic fever," an inflammatory disease, "and she was several months bedridden.
"She did overcome it," her daughter said, "but never went back into school."
But late in life, she got into work that needed more caring than schooling.
On Friday, June 3, Eleanor Zelley Whitman, 81, of Columbus, a former worker for the Burlington County Office on Aging, died of complications of pneumonia at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Hamilton, N.J.
From the late 1990s until 2007, Mrs. Whitman was a food preparer for the Office on Aging's Meals on Wheels program at the Clare Estate assisted living community in Bordentown.
"It was the only job she had," her daughter said, because her career had been as a homemaker.
In the mid-1990s, Mrs. Whitman began taking lunch, four days a week, at the Office on Aging program at Clare Estate.
Soon, her daughter said, "she had become friends with some of the ladies who worked there."
And she joined them.
"The first thing she would do," at Clare each morning, her daughter said, "was start making coffee. Then she would turn on the warming trays" for the luncheon guests.
"And when drivers would arrive to take meals to those bedridden or homebound," her daughter said, "she would help prepare and package them."
She never went out with the deliverers.
When the work became too much, she went back to being a guest, her daughter said, "until three months ago."
A member of the ladies auxiliary of the Beverly Road Fire Department, she had been a member of the Trinity United Methodist Church.
Besides her daughter, Mrs. Whitman is survived by sons Wilbur, Larry, Les, and Timmy; daughter Nanci Ray; a sister; 14 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; and a great-great-granddaughter. She was predeceased by her husband, George.
A visitation was set from 9 to 10 a.m. Wednesday, June 8, at Trinity United Methodist Church, 339 Farnsworth Ave., Bordentown, before a 10 a.m. funeral there, with interment in the Odd Fellows Cemetery, Burlington.
Donations may be sent to Meals on Wheels, Carslake Community Center, 207 Crosswicks St., Bordentown, N.J. 08505.
Condolences may be offered to the family at dennisonfh.com.
610-313-8134@WNaedele