Obituary of Justiana Ketchem

Justiana Ketchem (nee Kotrick) affectionately known by many as "Nene", passed away on Tuesday, February 22, 2011. She was born to Ukrainian immigrants Wasco and Anastasia Kotrick on August 23, 1920. She left her coal mining town in Pennsylvania at the young age of 15 to work as a domestic in New York City. She would send home more than half her pay each week to help her parents. She then moved to Akron where she joined other women at Goodyear for her role as Rosie the Riveter. She dedicated forty years to Goodyear. There, she met her husband, George Ketchem. Teen loved to work. In her house, in the garden or on vacation, work was her hobby. It was her trademark. Growing up during the depression, she saved everything and was the queen of improvising. She could rig up a garter belt or pair of pantyhose to a broken lawnmower and make it work as good as new. Curtain rods weren't needed because tape and paintsticks worked just as well. She loved to teach her great-grandsons Ukrainian, then listen to them botch it up. This made her laugh until she would cry. Her husband, George and nine siblings, Mary, Ann, Catherine, George, Michael, Alec, John, Frank and Adam have passed before her. She is survived by daughter and son-in-law, Donna and Phillip Walton; granddaughters, Justina (Chris) Ocheltree and Leah (Tom) Evans; her "boys", great-grandsons, Hayden, Graham, Holden, Rhett and Harrison are blessed to have known her love. She also leaves one sister, Helen Wysocki; and many nieces and nephews, including the "Wysocki Girls" of Carrolltown, PA. Thank you to St. Luke's of Portage Lakes for your loving dedication to "Teenie" and to Mary Dadisman, faithful roommate, may God continue to bless you. Funeral services will begin Saturday, February 26, 2011 at 9:30 a.m. at the Anthony Funeral Home Kucko-Anthony-Kertesz Chapel, 1990 S. Main St. in Akron followed by Divine Liturgy at 10 a.m. at Holy Ghost Ukrainian Byzantine Rite Catholic Church. Fr. Ignatius Kury officiating. Interment at Hillside Memorial Park. The family will receive friends Friday, February 25, 2011 from 4 to 8 p.m. at the funeral home where a Panakhyda service will be held at 7:30 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Tina's home church for Masses to Father Paul Bigelow, St. Peter and St. Paul Church, P.O. Box 44, Smithmill, PA. 16680-0044. (Anthony Funeral Homes, 330-724-1281, www.anthonyfh.com)