Larger text
Smaller text
Skater embraced life with faith, tenacity
Staff Reporter
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Contact Us | Video | RSS | Mobile
Daily Photo Galleries
By Matthew Santoni
Published: Thursday, October 4, 2012, 12:01 a.m.
Updated: Thursday, October 4, 2012
Time and again, Arlene Moran picked herself up.
She tore a knee ligament as a young performer with the Ice Capades, then endured surgery and months of rehabilitation before going back on tour.
She lost one of her three sons in a murder, so she kept busy volunteering as an aide for autistic children in the Gateway School District. When she began losing her eyesight, she endured injections rather than give up her book clubs and bridge games.
“She didn't want to lose her sight,” said her son, Joe Moran of Hudson, Ohio. “She wanted to battle that like she'd battled all her life.”
Arlene V. Moran died Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012, of heart failure in her home in Murrysville. She was 80.
Growing up in Oakland and attending St. Paul Cathedral High School — now Oakland Catholic — Mrs. Moran gravitated toward the Ice Capades skating academy at Duquesne Gardens next to the school, said her sister, Wynette O'Connell.
Both girls were accepted into training, but only Arlene toured nationally for more than three years as part of the Ice Capades' chorus line, said O'Connell, of Indian Land, S.C.
It took reconnecting with her future husband, Joseph Moran, whom she knew as a teenager, to bring her back to Pittsburgh to stay.
“They were always in each other's hearts. ... Joe and Arlene were a team, it was never Joe without Arlene or Arlene without Joe,” said O'Connell.
In the 1960s, she and a friend started an interior decorating business, and the two dressed lobbies and did window treatments for several Downtown office buildings and Mt. Washington restaurants, her son said.
The family suffered a blow in 1993, when her son, John T. “Jack” Moran, was murdered in West Virginia.
“She decided she needed to occupy herself in doing something good, so she decided, at her age, to work with autistic children as a volunteer,” Joe Moran said.
In addition to her husband, sister and son, Joe, Mrs. Moran is survived by her son Jim, of Greensburg, and 10 grandchildren.
Visitation is 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday in Gene H. Corl Funeral Chapel on Northern Pike in Monroeville. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Friday in North American Martyrs Church on Haymaker Road, with interment to follow.
Matthew Santoni is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-380-5625 or msantoni@tribweb.com.
Most-Read Allegheny
- Facial recognition technology moving toward identifying almost anyone
- Newsmaker: Jennifer Moss
- Congressmen: VA Pittsburgh ignored requests for Legionnaires’ records
- VA had Legionella bug 5 years before disclosure
- Sentencing postponed in Pitt online threats case
- Newsmaker: Tom Lopus
- Loyalhanna porn suspect says he was seeking his children
- Civil War history hides in, around Pittsburgh
- Newsmaker: Catherine Tyson
- Newsmaker: Mary Chester Wasko
- Consultant reached past politics to people
You must be signed in to add comments
To comment, click the Sign in or sign up at the very top of this page.
Subscribe today! Click here for our subscription offers.
