Active Greensburg retiree set pace for her family
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Sidonia Peruzzi had an independent spirit and a drive that was seemingly boundless.
“She was a very energetic person,” said daughter Victoria Waugaman of Hempfield. “She had more stamina than I do.”
In her 80s, Mrs. Peruzzi was no longer able to drive her yellow Volkswagen Beetle, but that didn’t confine her to her daughter’s home in the Hempfield village of Carbon.
“She would just keep going,” Waugaman said. “She would walk to South Greensburg to meet friends and play cards.”
Even after declining health prompted a move to a local nursing home in the fall of 2018, “She would be up at night, walking and walking,” her daughter said. “She just liked to move.”
Sidonia I. (Cindric) Larham Peruzzi of Greensburg died Saturday, Dec. 21, 2019, in Westmoreland Manor, Greensburg. She was 94.
Born Jan. 5, 1925, in Scranton, she was a daughter of the late Blaze and Anna Eva (Suchter) Cindric.
After making ceramic products at South Greensburg’s Porcelier Manufacturing Co. and working in the office of the W.T. Grant Co., Mrs. Peruzzi served as an assistant to the head of the meat department at the Charley Brothers grocery company in Carbon.
She held down the latter job through her retirement in 1966, while raising two daughters and working nights and weekends at her family’s nearby establishment, Nick’s Tavern on South Lincoln Avenue.
“She was fun, but she was a hard worker,” Waugaman said of her mother’s decade-long stint at the tavern. “She’d go after work and stay until she was needed, probably until 11 o’ clock. She did waitress work and was behind the bar with my dad.”
Once Mrs. Peruzzi retired, she began each day by attending Mass at St. Bruno Roman Catholic Church in South Greensburg and swimming more than 20 laps at the local YMCA. “She would pray for a different person as she swam each lap,” Waugaman said.
A volunteer at Westmoreland Hospital and an active St. Bruno member, Mrs. Peruzzi helped to prepare coleslaw for the church’s fish fries and to run its “instant bingo” games. “When somebody won, she had a big bell that she rang,” Waugaman said.
Proud of her Eastern European heritage, Mrs. Peruzzi took trips abroad, visiting relatives in the Czech Republic and purchasing a traditional folk outfit.
“It was hand-embroidered, and she would wear it anyplace she could,” including polka dances, said daughter Sandra Peruzzi of North Carolina. “She would dance all night. She would dance alone if she couldn’t find a partner.”
After her first husband died, Mrs. Peruzzi moved to North Carolina to be with her daughter there. Continuing her dedication to swimming, she also was a regular bowler and pool player.
Mrs. Peruzzi’s second marriage, in North Carolina, ended after 17 years, with the death of her spouse. She then returned to the Greensburg area to live with Waugaman’s family.
“She was an amazing person,” Sandra Peruzzi said. “After she retired, her whole goal in life was to have fun, and she did. It was infectious.”
In addition to her parents, Mrs. Peruzzi was preceded in death by her first husband, Nick P. Peruzzi; her second husband, James Larham; and two siblings.
She is survived by two daughters, Victoria Waugaman of Hempfield and Sandra M. Peruzzi of Wilmington, N.C.; four grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Friday in St. Bruno Roman Catholic Church, 1715 Poplar St., South Greensburg. Entombment will follow in Greensburg Catholic Cemetery Mausoleum.
Memorial donations may be made to St. Vincent de Paul, 126 S. Main St., Greensburg, PA 15601.