Obituary - Thelma M. Tuschhoff

Thelma Marie Tuschhoff died peacefully Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011, at Lewiston Rehabilitation and Care Center, due to complications associated with age. She went home to our Lord to enjoy his everlasting comfort and joy as well as the ultimate family reunion.

She was born Sept. 16, 1927, in Lewiston, to Frank and Thelma (Tupker) Hoorman. Marie was raised in Genesee and graduated from Genesee High School in 1945. She and Harold J. Tuschhoff were married in 1946 at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Genesee. They lived on the family farm in Uniontown and began raising their family there. They had three children by the time they moved to Clarkston in 1958, where they had three more children. She raised a large garden in both places and did a lot of canning, sewing and embroidery. She wrote her own keepsake cookbooks and was a very good baker.

As she was growing up and after she started her family, Sundays were spent with her mother's side of the family at her parents' home in Genesee, where they shared a big fried chicken dinner and told jokes and stories.

Her father had "moved out West" after World War I and his family, too, were big storytellers and jokers. Marie did an excellent job of keeping in touch with her Midwest relatives. Any time there was a family reunion in Ohio or when a few adventurous cousins would journey West, there was much laughter, people who instantly loved each other, and kids running all over the place.

When her own children and their families gathered for holidays and special occasions, she would often look around and with outspread arms proudly exclaim, "I'm responsible for all this!"

Like any young girl in the 1940s, Marie would swoon for Frank Sinatra and music was an integral part of her life. She played the clarinet in high school and the piano at home. One of her favorite things was listening to the radio as she fell asleep. This was very important and extremely comforting to her - listening to the swing music of her youth and the deep familiar voices of her favorite nighttime disc jockeys.

Marie shared her love of music with her children by singing them awake in the morning. She even played piano for the residents of Tri-State Convalescent Center when she was the entertainment coordinator helper there. Her various paying and volunteer work were all care-oriented, including Senior Home Health, Family Hospice and St. Vincent de Paul. She was a Cub Scout leader and served on the Holy Family Parish council.

Another lifelong pastime Marie enjoyed was watching baseball. She was an avid Mariners fan.

Marie was a social bug with a ready smile, an avid scrapbooker, a fastidious journal keeper and very routine oriented. In her later years, she depended on the SCAT bus to fulfill her social needs - looking at scenery, talking to other riders and making friends with the bus drivers - and a daily lunch trip to Wasem's, where she loved everyone there, too. Her long life's daily activities, encounters and memorabilia are recorded and glued in what amounts to a room full of detailed journals and chock-full of scrapbooks.

Marie is survived by three daughters; two sons; a daughter-in-law; 24 grandchildren; 21 great-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her infant brother, Francis Joseph Hoorman; husband Harold Tuschhoff; son James F. Tuschhoff; and grandson Chris Ausman.

Services include a reciting of the rosary and viewing at 10 a.m. and celebration of a funeral Mass at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Holy Family Catholic Church, followed by a luncheon at the Parish Center. Burial will be at 2 p.m. at St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Genesee. Memorials may be made to Holy Family Catholic School. Arrangements are being made by Merchant Funeral Home. Please sign the guest book at www.merchantfuneralhome.com.

Lewiston Tribune, November 16, 2011, p. 7C
Transcribed by Jill Leonard Nock