Betty Mae Nesbitt
Betty Mae Nesbitt, 91, of Zelienople passed away early Sunday morning at the Creek Meadows Care Facility.
Betty was born May 11, 1925, in New Brighton, and was the oldest child of O. Clyde and Ella (Waddington) Koah and a descendant of the well-known Studebaker family.
As a youth, she was a straight-A student and worked at Isaly's in New Brighton, where she met her future husband, Pete Nesbitt of Zelienople. In the 1940s, teenagers said that Isaly's meant: “I Shall Always Love You Sweetheart.” They married in 1944 and made their home on Beaver Street in Zelienople for 68 years. In the neighborhood, they were known as “the walkers.”
Betty was a Girl Scout leader, a member of the Travelers Club and enjoyed many bus trips with the Keen-Agers of Portersville.
She worked part-time at the Kaufman House, the Zelie Ann Shop, Anna's Children's Shop and the Zelienople Isaly's. She also assisted her husband Pete with janitorial duties at St. Peter's Church for 26 years.
She also did a great job raising three children.
She was very active at St. Peter's Reformed Church in Zelienople, where she served as Sunday school teacher and superintendent, vacation Bible school teacher and coordinator and a leader of the youth group, confirmation classes and MOPS-Mothers of Pre-Schoolers. She was the president of the Women's Fellowship and served as a church deacon, elder, and was one of the first women on consistory. She also started and helped build the church library which is named for her the “Betty Nesbitt Library.”
Betty was preceded in death by her husband, Pete Nesbitt; her daughter, Joanne Patterson; her sister, Dorothy Tronzo; her sister, Mary Lou Schwartz; and her brother, Clyde Koah.
She is survived by her son, Tom Nesbitt of Zelienople; her daughter, Barbara Freshcorn of Ellwood City; her sister-in-law, Mary Lou Burkett of Zelienople; six grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
NESBITT — The family of Betty Mae Nesbitt, who died Sunday, May 29, 2016, will welcome friends from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. today at the Boylan Funeral Home, 324 E. Grandview Ave., Zelienople. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. Peter's Reformed Church, 314-320 E. Grandview Ave., Zelienople, with the Rev. James Bertoti officiating. Everyone is asked to please meet at the church. She will be laid to rest at St. Peter's Reformed Church Cemetery.Memorial contributions may be made in Betty's honor to the St. Peter's Reformed Church, 314-320 E. Grandview Ave., Zelienople, PA 16063.Expressions of sympathy may be shared with Betty's family at www.boylanfuneralservices.com.
