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Martha Pengelly Hiack Clem, age, 82,
formerly of New Castle Street, Butler, Pennsylvania, died Friday,
July 11, 2008, at 11:48 p.m. at the Good Samaritan Hospice of
Wexford in Wexford, Pennsylvania.
Born in Mt. Carmey, Pennsylvania on
August 3, 1925, she was the daughter of the Reverend Frank and
Helena Bessie Pengelly Hiack. She came to Butler at the age of two,
when her father became pastor of Bethany Reformed Church (later
United Church of Christ).
Mrs. Clem served on the news staff of
the Butler Eagle for 43 years (May 1947-May 1990), as arts editor,
obituary editor, librarian, and secretary to editors and publishers,
the late John L. Wise, Sr. and John L. Wise, Jr.
She was a lifelong member of Bethany
United Church of Christ, Butler, Pennsylvania, when Bethany merged
with St. Paul's United Church of Christ, became a member of the
resulting Faith Reformed Church. She was a member of the Women's
Commission of Butler Interfaith Fellowship, and had at one time been
Bethany's representative to the Fellowship.
Mrs. Clem was a member of the GFWC
Woman's Club of Butler, which she had served as secretary from 1990
to 1998; and the Butler Eagle Retirees. She had been a volunteer
with the American Red Cross Blood Drives, and the Butler Community
Table at Faith Church. She had formerly sung with several area
choirs, most recently, the Meridian Community Choir.
She had served on Butler Little
Theatre Harlequin Awards Committee, and had received its Board of
Directors Award in 1978 and 1990.
Upon her retirement, she was named
honorary member of the Associated Artists of Butler County, and an
honorary Life Member of the Butler Little Theater Guild.
She was a former board member of the
Butler County Symphony Association and of the Lending Hands group of
the Butler County Community College Library. A former member of the
International Music Critics Association, based in Washington D.C.,
she had served a term on its board of directors.
She had chaired the 1974 After Prom
Committee at Butler High School, the first woman to be sole chairman
of the event.
Graduated from Butler High School in
1942 and Grove City College in 1946, she took additional courses at
Syracuse University and in Butler High School and Butler County
Community College Adult Education programs.
She is survived by one son, John Clem
and his wife, Wendy, of Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania; two
granddaughters Christie and Lisa Clem; one sister, Mrs. Ruth Carey
of Johnstown, New York; a brother, Dr. Paul S. Hiack of Levittown,
Pennsylvania; one niece, four nephews, five grandnieces and one
grand nephew and by a number of cousins.
One sister preceded her in death.
Friends and family of Martha Clem
will be received at the Thompson-Miller Funeral Home, Inc., 124 East
North Street, Butler, Pennsylvania 16001 on Tuesday, July 15, 2008
from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m.
Funeral services will follow on
Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. with the Reverend James Bertotti,
pastor of St. Peter's Reformed Church, officiating. Interment will
follow in the North Side Cemetery.
The family suggests memorial
donations be made in lieu of flowers to The Building Fund of St.
Peter's Reformed Church, 320 East Grandview Avenue, Zelienople,
Pennsylvania 16063. |
A Life Remembered . . .