Wayne Whitehouse

Born June 29, 1929 in Manayunk. Pa. My sister Doris was born the year before on March 23; and baby sister Arvella wouldn’t come along ‘til 1933, the year my Dad died of pneumonia. Things started out well enough for a young family. Mom and Dad bought a new home on Naomi Street in Roxborough, a few months after I was born. But in October of that year, Wall Street felt the pangs of financial distress, and the stock market crash that followed, causing chaos beyond description. Dad lost his job, we lost our home, and if it hadn’t been for our grandparents, the Liebs, we’d probably end up on the street. However, after Dad’s death, my Mom in 1937 had me enrolled in Girard College, a school for fatherless boys. I know she dreaded sending me off but I also know she wanted me to have the best of both worlds; a better education and the success it brings. After leaving Girard in 1947, I joined the Army Air Corp. Basic training was at San Antonio, Texas. I attended Radar school in Boca Raton, Florida and Firefighter school at Biggs Field, Texas (El Paso). When I returned to civilian life in 1948, jobs were as scarce as a ‘hens tooth’, so I ended up doing hospital work at Hahnemann, Pennsylvania and Jewish hospitals as an orderly. However dismal it may have seemed at the time, I met a student nurse whom I admired and adored, and would ultimately marry in 1950. I worked meaningless jobs in the interim; paper mills, sailing on Oil tankers with Sun Oil Company, but in 1951 I landed a job of my dreams. The Reading Railroad offered me a job of Electrician Helper. I worked four years as an apprentice that subsequently awarded me a journeyman electrician. I worked twelve years as a diesel electrician, but the bulk of my employment was spent in Substation work with the Reading, Conrail and in 1983 with Septa, until my retirement in 1991. The only major setback I had in my life would occur in May 1990, when I learned that my son Bryan had died in his sleep. He was an avid hunter, fisherman and great outdoorsman. We did so many things together and it left me with a void in my life I could never fill, or would I want to. He was married to Lisa Connelly and together they had a son Christopher. All of my children were successful in life, and pursued careers I could only dream of. My wife and mother of those children, made me proudest when she graduated college in 1975, after nurturing and motherhood. All’s well that ends well.

Survived by his beloved children, Wayne G. Whitehouse (Ann), Lynda Feigenbaum (Lloyd) & Donna Reichert (John); loving grandchildren Erik, Alyson, Lindsey, Katie, Jacqueline, Jaimie, Christopher & Kyle; adoring great-grandchildren, Lily, Ryan, Stella, Parker, Ellie, Sadie & Chloe; caring daughter-in-law, Lisa Whitehouse; cherished sister, Doris Crowers.

Family and friends are invited to help celebrate Wayne’s Life on Wednesday, September 11, 2019 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM at The Knoetgen-Donohue Funeral Home, 746 Kedron Avenue, Morton, Pa 19070, where at 11:00 AM you will be encouraged to share your memories of Wayne. Interment: SS Peter & Paul Cemetery.