Baggley woman remembered as caring person
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Yvonne Schmucker was always helping someone else, no matter her own circumstances.
And the Baggley, Unity Township, native raised her children, who all volunteer and work for various organizations, and grandchildren to be the same way.
“We all have gotten that bug from my mother, just helping when we can in big and small ways,” said her daughter, Carrie Schmucker.
Yvonne J. Schmucker of Youngstown, Pa., died Wednesday, July 3, 2019, surrounded by her family. She was 79.
Born Feb. 14, 1940, in Baggley, she was the daughter of Jacob and Nellie Bolby.
One of five siblings, Mrs. Schmucker grew up in the coal town, where her parents lived in a house owned by a mining company. She married at 17, dropping out of high school to start her family.
“She went up to eighth grade and then didn’t finish high school because her and my dad got married,” Carrie Schmucker said. “But later in life, which was very uncommon for women … my mom, her sisters, and sister-in-laws all went back for their GED.”
After that, the family started Art Master Enterprises Inc. in Latrobe, where Mrs. Schmucker honed her business skills.
“She could just take chaos and just turn it into order in the business sense,” Carrie Schmucker said. “She also did that with really hard times with life. She took that emotional chaos and turned it into order.”
Growing up, Carrie Schmucker said her mom tried to teach her to live a level life — something Mrs. Schmucker strived for in her own life.
Common sayings in the household included, “Slow down,” “Think before you speak” and “No matter how bad yesterday was, today is a new day, and it’s a gift. Be grateful for it, and make it a better day.”
In her free time, Mrs. Schmucker always was volunteering, whether it was helping her parents, who lived nearby, or checking in on neighbors.
“There was a family down over the ridge of the hill … and she would look in on them and see if they needed things,” said her daughter, Dianne Dunlap. “And just like my cousins, their mom died young, and each of the three girls had had children. And my mom would babysit them for them.”
Mrs. Schmucker especially loved spending time with her family and had better luck at scratch off tickets than most, said Carrie Schmucker, who would take her mom to Meadows Racetrack and Casino in Washington County, while Dunlap would take her to the River’s Casino on Pittsburgh’s North Side.
“Us three kids and her grandchildren are carrying her torch in honor of her,” Carrie Schmucker said. “We all have a lot of our mother in us.”
Mrs. Schmucker was preceded in death by her siblings Betty Hamilton, Don Bolby, Sarah Schmucker, Max Bolby and Kaye Helman.
In addition to her daughters, she is survived by her son, Jeff Schmucker; her grandsons Tyler Dunlap, Colin Schmucker and Gus Schmucker; a great-grandchild and several nieces and nephews.
Friends and family will be received from 3 to 7 p.m. Sunday at Frederick Funeral Home, 1543 Ligonier St., Latrobe. A short service will follow. Anyone who would like to share a memory of Mrs. Schmucker is invited to do so during the service.
Donations can be made to St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, 4329 Route 982, Latrobe.