Elizabeth Hilda Orwig

Elizabeth Hilda Orwig

Elizabeth Hilda Stanley was born on September 8, 1918 in City Hospital in Akron Ohio. She was affectionately known as Bea to her friends and family. Her mother was Helen M. Stanley and her father was Gardner E. Stanley. In her early years her parents divorced, and she suffered the loss of her father and talked of this all her life. She grew up in Akron on the west side. Her mother remarried to Ralph Jones, and she later became a sister to two siblings, Ralph Jr. and Helen Martha (Marty).

She recalled fond memories of her summers as a child on the Knollwood estate in Long Island's gold coast where her Uncle John helped in managing the estate. Tales of riding horses, tending dairy cows, swimming in the estate pool and a privileged play time with the occasional house guests.

In her teen years she attended Buchtel High School. She learned to ride horses and had friends she shared time with riding on the estates of the Rubber Barons. She talked of riding all her days, and was tickled in later years to return to ride on a horse for her 90th birthday.

Elizabeth married Charles Kermit Orwig, best known as Kerm, on August 11, 1939 at the Church of our Savior in Akron, Ohio. WWII took Kerm off to NY where he served until the war ended.

Elizabeth and Kerm had three children, Connie Marie, Robert Charles and Mary Elizabeth and they were raised in Akron, too. Holidays, picnics and birthdays were often spent with her sister Marty and her growing family.Elizabeth loved to bake, enjoyed cooking and sewing, and took up all sorts of crafts and needlework.
She was a collector of Teddy bears which was a common gift to her and ceramic birds but, not very fond of the blue jays.

Her children grown, Elizabeth left Akron to move to a country house in Doylestown. She loved her time there, learning to can fruits and vegetables, taking care of the property, watching the birds she loved to feed. Elizabeth always loved her dogs too, and had pets most of her life.
She cared for Kerm as he declined suffering from Alzheimers disease. Elizabeth took care of him until his last days. After Kerm passed, Elizabeth moved to Wadsworth where she lived for over 25 years. She filled her days with crafts and volunteer work at the local hospital.

During all these years her children married and to her delight grandchildren arrived. Dawn to Connie, Brian, Tracy and Scott to Bob, and Amanda and Ian to Mary. Great grandchildren followed, Erin and John, Dominic and Juliette, Anna and Leah.

At the age of 86 Elizabeth went on a trip of her lifetime a cruise to Alaska with her daughters. She enjoyed all the delights of the cruise ship, and took excursions to dog sled on a glacier, pan for gold and take a train to Denali Park. Her prize possession from that trip was a stuffed Huskie, whom she called wolf, was always by her side or in the basket of her walker.

After many years of independent living, Elizabeth moved to Virginia at the age of 94 where she lived in assisted living, and where she left this earth on June 27, 2016 in the Birmingham Green Nursing Center in Manassas, Virginia.

Graveside services will be held 11 a.m. SATURDAY, August 27th in the Chapel of Rose Hill Burial Park, Rev. Gaye Santoro officiating.