Hazel Funk
Hazel Regina Ferguson Funk passed peacefully March 1, 2021, at Concordia at Cabot.
Hazel was born Dec. 9, 1921, and grew up on the Ferguson Dairy Farm in Gibsonia. As a child of the Great Depression, she was the second youngest of seven brothers and sisters. She wore hand-me-downs until she learned to sew in her teen years.
Sewing and fashion became her passion, both from necessity and from the joy of creating perfectly fitted garments for herself and her family. She loved to coordinate colors, but never saw her creations as the art form they became. In her later years, her creativity turned to quilting, as she made personalized quilts for her family, each one capturing an expression of their personality.
Hazel was a tall red head. She met her husband-to-be at a dance sponsored by the Pittsburgh Tall Club before World War II. Oscar Roy Funk began to fall in love with her and her farm family before he enlisted and served in the war. On his return, they reconnected through his mother, and were married on Oct. 16, 1946. Dad always loved her blazing red hair, although she didn’t. Once she told us that she loved him because he accepted her just as she was, so she could always be herself with him, curly red hair and all.
When she became pregnant, she left her job as a secretary (she never thought she was any good at it, although she worked at Alcoa for over six years).
Soon, Roy and Hazel built their own home on a far corner of the Ferguson farm. It was there that they raised three healthy kids and a half-acre garden. (Those two things are related)! During these years, Hazel’s skills as a homemaker blossomed. She gardened. She harvested. She canned. She baked. Always, she sewed those perfectly fitted clothes for us all.
Time marched on full of picnics, church and family gatherings, and Saturday night “500” games with friends and neighbors. It was always “the boys against the girls,” and the boys always cheated!
Next thing she knew, the kids were growing up. Gayle was off to college and teaching. Young Roy on his motorcycle was romancing a lovely young woman named Mary Jo, and Marsha left for adventure in California. Part-time work at a fabric store allowed her to develop a new pastime, shopping!
Their son, Roy, gave Oscar Roy and Hazel one of the greatest gifts of their lives, three beautiful granddaughters, Amanda, Carisa and Kara. As the years went by, life brought the girls close to Grandma and Grandpa. When they grew up, their time in Grandma’s kitchen evolved into an annual Christmas cookie party to celebrate Grandma’s birthday and send cookies to Marsha in California.
Of course, as great-grandchildren were born, cookie making became even more chaotic and fun. All four great-granddaughters spent time playing in Great-Grandma’s Concordia apartment, making chalk art on the sidewalk and munching cookies. She baked cookies almost every Saturday until her 99th year. She was never completely satisfied with her creations, but we all happily ate them. And so did she!
Hazel liked to be active. After Oscar passed in 2006, she engaged even more in friendships and activities at Concordia. Church services continued to sustain her. She always was a woman of quiet, simple faith.
As Hazel’s years advanced, she worked hard to maintain her independence. She needed to live life on her own terms, and she succeeded, even at the time of her peaceful death and journey home. Hazel Regina Ferguson Funk left a legacy of love. We are forever grateful.
Hazel and Oscar’s children are Gayle Funk and her spouse, Karen O’Donnell, of Butler, Roy Funk and his wife, Georgene Funk, of Butler, and Marsha Funk and her fiancé, Peyton Cooper, of Vista, Calif.
Their grandchildren are Amanda and Nathan Cypher of Saxonburg, Carisa and Jake Davidowski of Sarver, Kara and Corry DiCarlo of Pittsburgh, and Madison Cooper of the U.S. Air Force in Japan.
Their great-grandchildren are Natalie, Ava, Lydia and Cora.
Hazel is remembered by her Concordia at Cabot friends, nieces, nephews and especially by her nieces, Lois Mills and Jackie Jinks.
She was a lifelong member of Hampton Presbyterian Church, which her parents helped to found.
FUNK — A memorial service for Hazel Regina Ferguson Funk, who died Monday, March 1, 2021, will take place this summer. The location is undetermined.
Arrangements have been entrusted to King Funeral Home and Cremation Services, Allison Park.
Any donations in Hazel’s memory can be sent to Good Samaritan Hospice or the American Diabetes Association.
Expressions of sympathy may be shared with Hazel’s family at www.kingfuneralhome.com.
