Greensburg woman loved to travel - Dec. 18, 2019

Peggy Jean Bell of Greensburg loved to travel with her husband, Tom, to places in the United States and around the world — Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, Europe and South America, said her daughter, Cheryl Bell of Ashburn, Va.

While she toured foreign lands and experienced the different cultures they offered, she always came back home to the Greensburg area, where she lived all of her life, Cheryl Bell said.

Mrs. Bell, 87, died Saturday, Dec. 14, 2019, at her home.

She was born Feb. 20, 1932, in Greensburg, the daughter of the late William C. “Bumper” and Mary Wolfe Whitehead.

Mrs. Bell grew up during the Depression and World War II. She could recall the family receiving ration booklets, containing coupons for staples such as butter and shoes, Cheryl Bell said.

Her extended family lived in and around the Greensburg area. She could walk to the home of one of her grandmothers and only had to take the trolley to South Greensburg to see her other grandmother, Bell said.

She met her future husband, Thomas W. Bell, while the two attended Greensburg High School. The couple were married in September 1950.

After graduating from high school in 1949, she began working as an accounting secretary for the former Jameson Coal Co. in its downtown Greensburg office, Bell said. Mrs. Bell also worked as a legal secretary for a Greensburg law firm and for attorney Ned Nakles Sr. in Latrobe. She also was a human resources secretary and accounting assistant.

Mrs. Bell retired from the Tribune-Review, where she worked in the 1980s and 1990s in the classified advertising department.

At home, she loved to play piano, particularly the popular music of the day. She was not as lucky, however, in passing along her love of the piano to her daughters, Cheryl Bell said.

Raising four daughters, she sewed clothes for them when they were in school, Cheryl Bell said.

Mrs. Bell loved to host family dinners around the holidays, Cheryl Bell said. Her husband worked to remodel the house so they could fit the 32 members of the family for those special meals.

She volunteered in the mailroom at the former Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg. She also played a role in the reunion committee for her high school class, Bell said.

“She loved keeping track of people,” Bell said.

Mrs. Bell was a member of Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in Hempfield.

In addition to her husband and daughter Cheryl Bell, she is survived by three other daughters, Laurie Pile of Cranberry, Diane Constantine of Wexford and Nancy Yagla of Irwin; six grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; one brother; and many nieces and nephews.

Friends were received at the Leo M. Bacha Funeral Home Inc., 516 Stanton St., Greensburg. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, 1011 Mt. Pleasant Road, Hempfield. Everyone is asked to go directly to the church. Entombment will follow in Twin Valley Memorial Park Mausoleum, Delmont. Memorial donations may be made to the Parkinson’s Foundation, 200 SE First St., Suite 800, Miami, FL 33131.