Patricia C. Wolfington, former Hainesport mayor, nurse, and real estate agent, has died at 88

Patricia C. Wolfington, 88, previously of Hainesport, retired mayor of Hainesport Township, nurse, and genuine estate agent, died Tuesday, Jan. 31, of troubles from cerebrovascular illness at Hospice of the Chesapeake in Severna Park, Md.

As a politician, public servant, caregiver, businessperson, and devout Catholic philanthropist, Mrs. Wolfington was intrigued and profitable in all types of actions all over her daily life. But her specialty was politics and general public assistance.

As a 9-12 months-aged in 1944, she wrote a congratulatory letter to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower for his results throughout Entire world War II, and his endearing response to youthful Patsy Concannon caught the consideration of information reporters and photographers. Her tale or photo appeared in the New York Periods, Stars and Stripes, and other publications across the country.

“Dear Patsy,” Eisenhower wrote, according to a February 1944 story in the Occasions. “I am delighted to see that you are such a patriotic tiny American and consider this sort of an energetic curiosity in this war.” A photograph of Mrs. Wolfington keeping Eisenhower’s letter appeared in the Stars and Stripes a thirty day period later, and her more mature cousin was pleasantly shocked to see her smiling experience in the newspaper while he was on navy duty in the Pacific theater.

She turned a registered nurse immediately after high college and was lively on the Hainesport mum or dad instructor association whilst her four little ones attended school. She labored as a actual estate agent and broker right after her kids were more mature, and grew to become a economical officer for Hainesport Township in the early 1980s.

She was elected to the township’s executive committee from 1985 to 1989 served as deputy mayor for a time, and in 1986 and 1987 served as the township’s very first Republican feminine mayor. For the duration of her time as mayor, Mrs. Wolfington grappled with these kinds of controversial problems as the widening of Route 38 and rezoning of afflicted properties, cleanup of a harmful-squander internet site, refurbishment of the township’s only faculty, construction of a senior citizens middle, and staffing the law enforcement section.

Typically outspoken on her positions, she supported the expansion of Route 38 in the 1980s and advocated in 1989 to include academic specifications for township law enforcement leaders. In 1988, she advised The Inquirer that the township would not let an issue with funding terminate essential repairs to Hainesport Township Faculty. “If the college requirements a new roof, they’ll get one particular. Which is all,” Mrs. Wolfington reported.

“She accomplished a large amount,” mentioned her daughter Lisa. “She was a person of a type and an inspiration to numerous. She was loyal and experienced wonderful integrity. You understood in which you stood with her.”

Mrs. Wolfington also served on panels and subcommittees for the township, and she welcomed Nancy Reagan to Medford when the very first woman frequented a neighborhood Woman Scouts camp during an antidrug marketing campaign. “She was tasteful, dignified, type and considerate of other people in culture and her local community,” her family claimed in a tribute.

Born Mary Patricia Concannon on Aug. 4, 1934, in Trenton, Mrs. Wolfington and her household moved to Philadelphia and then Drexel Hill, and she went to quality college at St. Andrew with Robert Wolfington, her long term husband. She was fascinated in science, graduated from Notre Dame Higher Faculty, attended Fitzgerald Mercy Medical center Faculty of Nursing, and labored at Fitzgerald Mercy and later on as a personal nurse.

She married Robert Wolfington in 1959, and they experienced daughters Mary Pat and Lisa and sons Henry and Robert Jr. and lived in Hainesport. Her spouse died in 1998.

Mrs. Wolfington was a member of St. John Neumann Church in Mount Laurel, contributed to area Catholic companies and tasks, and stated the rosary each individual working day. She embraced her Irish heritage and posted recipes for shepherd’s pie on Facebook, savored summertime vacations at Beach front Haven, and knitted blankets for her grandchildren.

She read several books weekly for a long time and had been just lately living near to loved ones in Chester, Md. Her daughter Mary Pat Wolfington Larralde mentioned: “She was gracious, variety, hardworking, had a wonderful deal of integrity, an unbelievable sense of humor, and normally encouraged us to give other individuals the benefit of the question because, at the rear of every single door there is a cross that we know very little about.”

In an on the web tribute, a good friend reported: “She was a superb man or woman. [We] had a great deal of respect for her.”

In addition to her young children, Mrs. Wolfington is survived by four grandchildren, a person wonderful-granddaughter, and other family members. A brother and sister died previously.

A celebration of her daily life is to be held Wednesday, Feb. 8. Visitation with the loved ones is 9 to 10 a.m. at Donohue Funeral Residence, 8401 West Chester Pike, Upper Darby, Pa. 19082. A Mass is to comply with at 10:30 at St. Dorothy Church, 4910 Township Line Rd., Drexel Hill, Pa. 19026.

Donations in her identify may well be built to the Monks of the Sacred Heart, Sacred Heart Monastery, P.O. Box 900, Hales Corners, Wis. 53130.