Trafford woman was a guardian angel at crosswalk to generations of children
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Rose Ann Fullerton didn’t have a title, but children in Trafford knew that she was queen of the crossing guards, a guardian angel who saw them safely on and off the school bus.
Every school day morning for 42 years, rain, snow or shine, Mrs. Fullerton was at the corner of Woodlawn and Belleau Wood Boulevard looking out for Trafford’s children.
“She was the longest tenured school crossing guard,” George Fullerton said, recounting life with his wife of 60 years. “She used to say she’d outlasted mayors and police chiefs and everything. She loved it. She had it timed to the minute. She put kids on the bus that she had put their mothers and dads on the bus years earlier. When she was paralyzed (from a stroke) about a year and a half ago, one of the kids she used to put on the bus came here to help take care of her. We were blessed.”
Rose Ann Fullerton of Trafford died Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019, in UPMC East in Monroeville. She was 81.
Mrs. Fullerton was born March 30, 1938, in Finleyville, to Charlie and Eva (Jackson) Konvalinka. She grew up in the Turtle Creek Valley.
George Fullerton met his wife when they were students at Turtle Creek High School. They married when he was discharged from the Navy several years after high school graduation. During a marriage that spanned more than half a century, they had four children, 13 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren and traveled to 48 of the 50 states.
Over the years, Mrs. Fullerton documented family gatherings, travels and achievements in carefully curated photo albums.
“She must have had at least 15 of them,” George Fullerton said, as family gathered at his home this week.
Golf, shopping and trips to Myrtle Beach with family and a close-knit group of friends were among Mrs. Fullerton’s favorite pastimes.
Her son, Michael, of Irwin, laughed as he recalled his mother’s passion for bargains.
“She was the coupon queen. And shopping on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, was a family affair. She would be standing in line at a store at 4 a.m., always looking for the hot item that year. I used to make sure she had 5 or 6 of the grandkids along to carry all the stuff she bought,” he said.
Michael Fullerton said his mother had an enormous capacity for joy and friendship.
“There were five or six couples my parents were friends with since high school, and they were like family. My mother was always the one making sure there were flowers for funerals and cards for every birthday. The hallway was a mural with all the pictures of their friends and children and grandchildren,” he said.
In addition to her husband and son, Michael and his wife, Cheryl, Mrs. Fullerton is survived by two daughters, Donna Paladin and her husband, Gary, of Penn Township, and Beth Werksman and her husband, Steve, of Bellevue; another son, Scott Fullerton and his wife, Emily, of Austin, Texas; 13 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
Family and friends will be received from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday in John M. Dobrinick Funeral Home Inc., 702 Seventh St. (State Route 130), Trafford, 412-372-3111. A prayer and remembrance service will be held at 6 p.m., the conclusion of visitation, Sunday. Interment will be private.