Noreen M. Quinn

AGE: 78 • Newark

Passed away peacefully at Brandywine Nursing and Rehab Center on Tuesday, July 11, 2017. Noreen’s family is comforted knowing that she will be reunited in heaven with her beloved husband, Thomas, who preceded her in death almost 50 years ago.

Born in 1938 in Wilmington, Delaware, Noreen was the third of five children born to the late John R. and Julia Toomey (Galvin). Noreen grew up enjoying baseball with her father, competing with the boys, and getting in to trouble with her lifelong friend, Judy, and her sister, Bet. She was a proud graduate of St. Elizabeth High School, Class of 1957, and served her fellow students as Vice President of the Senior Class, and President of the Student Council that same year.

Despite being widowed as a young mother, Noreen supported her daughters as a homemaker for many years. She joined the workforce as an office manager in the late 1970’s, first at Brandywine Nursing Home, and later at Glasgow Physical Therapy. She was a longtime parishioner of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Roman Catholic Church. One of Noreen’s fondest memories was the cross-country trip she took in 1971 with her two small children, Sheila and Nora, and her sister Bet. They spent six weeks driving cross-country to California – braving the open road before there were seat belts!

Noreen was an avid reader, a lover of animals, travel, gardening and sewing. To her family’s surprise she became a die-hard NASCAR fan late in life, and for decades she never missed an episode of Jeopardy. Noreen had a ferocious spirit, a keen Irish wit, and battled life’s struggles with a noble and stubborn persistence. She overcame tragedy, hardship, and disease with a quiet grace we can only hope to emulate ourselves. She was the matriarch of our family and our whole heart. We are devastated to lose her, but know that she’ll be looking down on us always.

Noreen will be dearly missed by her two loving children, Sheila Scott (Gary) and Nora Wallace (Scott); 6 beloved grandchildren, Meghan Wallace (Jarred), Gary Scott, Erin Wallace, Jillian Scott, Bridget Wallace, and Devin Wallace; and her two great-grandsons, whom she adored, Desmond Keena and Conner Houser. Noreen is also survived by her sisters, Elizabeth Senkus (Vete) and Mary Jane Lemon (Chuck); her brother, John R. Toomey, Sr. (Marilyn); her brother-in-law, Paul Gerard Quinn (Joan Keane); her sisters-in-law, Clare Kane and Kathleen Quinn (Tom Stringer); and a host of nieces and nephews.

Relative and friends are invited to attend a Mass of Christian Burial on Saturday, July 15, at 9:30 am at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Roman Catholic Church, 345 Bear-Christiana Road, Bear, DE. Burial will follow Mass in Cathedral Cemetery. Friends may call at Krienen-Griffith Funeral Home, 1400 Kirkwood Hwy., Wilm., DE 19805, on Friday, July 14, from 6:00-8:00 pm.

In lieu of flower, please make donations to The Benedictine Sisters of Ridgely Maryland, 14259 Benedictine Lane, Ridgely, MD 21660.

Krienen-Griffith Funeral Home
www.delawarefuneral.com
302.994.9614

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