Friends of Marie Zehler may call at Mount Laurel Home for Funerals on Sunday, Oct. 8, from 6 to 8 p.m.
Marie Zehler passed away in the loving arms of her family on Oct. 4.
She is survived by her husband, Edward Zehler.; her seven children, Annette (Rick), Daniel (Nancy), Ellen (Frank), Marcia (Patrick), Steven, Carol (Todd), and Virginia (Bruce); 17 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Marie Katherine Zehler, née Scheier, was born on May 8, 1924 in Buffalo, New York. She attended high school at Nardin Academy (Class of ’42), in Buffalo, where she was a solo pianist and class treasurer. She hoped to be a secretary, marry and have a large family. She did all of that and so much more. After graduation, she worked as a secretary to the librarian at Canisius College where she met her husband Edward Zehler.
After they married, she worked at Westinghouse Electric Corporation until her first pregnancy. She was a loving mother to seven children. In the mid-1970s, she served as a probation counselor. From 1977 to 1978, she was an American Field Service host. In 1984, at the age of 60, she graduated from Rutgers University with a bachelor of arts in English. She called it the proudest day of her life. For a time after that, she worked at Rutgers Law School. She was endlessly curious and traveled all over the world to Germany, England, Russia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, France and more.
She learned to love poetry, reading, music and gardening from her father. From her mother, she learned the value of friendship, baking, religion and long conversations after dinner over tea. A long-time member of the Moorestown Garden Club, she won awards for her flowers and delighted at her garden in full bloom every spring especially the return of her dahlias.
Above all else she believed in being moral and generous. A Eucharistic minister and a devoted member of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish for more than 50 years, she was deeply committed to many causes, especially Right to Life. She gave to many charities, but she was a long-time supporter of Catholic Charities, American Federation for the Blind, Doctors Without Borders, Hearing Health Foundation, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Ronald McDonald House Charities, St. Joseph’s Indian School, Pinelands Preservation Alliance and Covenant House.
Friends may call at Mount Laurel Home for Funerals located at: 212 Ark Rd., Mt Laurel, on Sunday, Oct. 8, from 6 to 8 p.m. A mass will take place on Monday, Oct. 9 at 10:30 a.m. at Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish located at 42 W. Main Street in Moorestown.
Donations in her memory may be made to Hearing Health Foundation at: 363 Seventh Avenue, 10th Floor, New York, NY, 10001–3904, and to Save the Environment of Moorestown (STEM), P.O. Box 704, Moorestown, NJ, 08057.
