Eleanor Janet (Freece) Custer November 21, 1927 – September 1, 2018 After a lifetime that included dancing around the kitchen to her own made-up songs, playing thousands of games of cards and bingo, baking thousands of pies, cookies, and treats, collecting 500 decorative thimbles, witnessing two stock market crashes and a world war, and poking around her garden in her brightly-colored flip-flops, Eleanor Janet (Freece) Custer told us goodbye at the age of ninety. Ellie was born at home on November 21, 1927 to Racheal (Bard) and Floyd Elmer Freece in Mont Clare, Pennsylvania. A fearless girl, she had many stories about growing up with her brothers Charlie and Ray and sister Kate, with whom she had numerous adventures and misadventures.
She attended Norristown High School through her senior year, when in a daring-and very characteristic statement of opinion-she walked out in protest two months shy of graduating. After all, if seniors aren’t allowed to leave their last-period study halls, then the silly school wasn’t worth her time. Ellie found work at the Flag Company, which she “hated”, and quickly found better work as a telephone operator for Bell in Phoenixville.
Forming friendships with her coworkers, Ellie would enjoy her time at the phone company where she and other operators would choose two phone numbers at random, connect the two unsuspecting parties, and then giggle madly when the strangers tried to determine who called whom and what they wanted. Around this time, Ellie was also frequenting the Civic Center and Masonic Center dance halls, always in heels- her hair curled and nails polished to perfection. It was amid the waltz, polka, and jitterbug that she met “Louk” and fell in love.
Eleanor married Leo Frederick Custer on October 9, 1954. They have shared over sixty-three years of laughter, coffee, decorating every square inch of the house for Christmas, dancing, and light-hearted pranks. Two stubborn jokesters, they were perfectly matched.
Eleanor is survived by her husband, Louk; her children Nancy Lynn (Stu Strauss), Lisa Ann, and Leo Todd (Angela Ciarrocki); her granddaughter Katie Lynn (Paul Liao); golden retriever Dusty; and two cats Houdini and Fancy. After nearly 91 years of laughter, jokes, and dancing – of fire and mirth-it may seem incongruous that Eleanor should pass quietly at home in her sleep; but it shouldn’t. She died exactly as she had lived her life-on her terms.
Relatives and friends are invited to attend her Funeral Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 148 Church Street, Phoenixville, PA on Friday, September 7, 2018 at 11:00 am. Burial will follow in Sacred Heart Cemetery, Phoenixville. Friends may call at the church on Friday from 9:45 am to 10:45 am.
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