Willa Mae Greenwood

LANCASTER - Willa Mae Greenwood, 94, died peacefully Saturday morning October 5, 2013 at The Morrison in Whitefield. Willa Mae was born in Fayette County, West Virginia to Zell M. and Donna (Tully) Davis, raised there and in Ohio, graduating from Nutall High School in Lookout, WV at the age of 16. She ran a boarding house after graduation and then attended secretarial school in Washington DC. She worked for several years as secretary to the Executive Director of the National Association of Manufacturers in Washington. There she met Orville Greenwood and they were married on May 31, 1941. They lived in Baltimore, MD before moving to Springfield, PA in 1951 where she was a mother and homemaker until her children were in their teens. She then worked as school secretary at the Swarthmore Elementary School where she met Bethany Gessner Edney who introduced her family to the Lancaster, NH area. She later was a reporter for the Springfield Press for 13 years and worked as Volunteer Coordinator at Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park, PA. In Springfield she was active in Princeton Presbyterian Church where she served both as Deacon and a Ruling Elder. She enjoyed hiking, camping and canoeing with her family and was a member of the 1000 Mile Club of the Springfield Trail Club. She and Orville retired to Lancaster in 1984 where she was a member of the Ladies Guild at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, the Unity Club and the Monday Club as well as a volunteer for the Weathervane Theatre. She was a lifetime avid reader and writer. Willa Mae's family and friends will greatly miss her engaging wit and playful sense of humor. Surviving family members include her children Donna Brewster and her husband Roy of Lancaster, Philip Greenwood and his wife Mary of Monroe, VA; 4 grandchildren; 3 great-grandchildren; 3 step grandchildren; 2 step great-grandchildren; a brother Richard P. Davis and his wife Edith of Fairfield, Ohio; and several nieces and nephews. Her husband, Orville Wallin Greenwood, her brother, Robert T. Davis and his wife, Phyllis, of Johnson City, TN, and half siblings, Carl Davis and his wife, Dorothy, of Newark, OH, Morris Davis and his wife, Margaret, of Hialeah, FL, and Zelma Davis of Newark, OH, died previously. Visiting hours will be held Wednesday evening, October 9th from 6:00 to 8:00 PM in the Parish Center at St. Paul's Church, Lancaster. A memorial service will be held Thursday morning at 10:00 AM at St. Paul's. In lieu of flowers donations may be made in her memory to St. Paul's Church, 113 Main Street, Lancaster, NH 03584 or The Morrison, 6 Terrace Street, Whitefield, NH 03598.

Willa Mae Greenwood

March 16, 1919 - October 5, 2013