The Connellsville community this week lost a woman who loved the city.
Nancy Henry was a Daily Courier columnist/freelance writer and a Rotarian who was active in various other organizations.
Henry was a beloved daughter, sister and aunt.
And she was a woman who knew and loved her community better than most.
Henry, 61, passed away unexpectedly Thursday in her South Connellsville home.
Henry was the former president of the Greater Connellsville Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Connellsville Rotary and a former advertising representative with the Daily Courier. Several years ago, she began to write a weekly column for The Courier.
Friend and fellow Rotarian Judy Eans of Connellsville has known Henry since the 1980s, meeting through Rotary and various organizations. Both were experienced advertising sales persons.
Eans said Henry had a fond love of her family and of Connellsville, her hometown.
‘She knew everything'
“She was always my go-to person if I needed to find out what was going on in Connellsville,” Eans said. “She knew everything.”
Eans said Henry kept the Rotary Club well informed and updated with everything going on in Connellsville and held various offices in Rotary, including secretary and media contact.
“She was well known and truly loved in this community,” Eans said.
Henry wrote a story about Eans' 77-year-old mother walking four miles every day and participating in 5K events.
“My mother was absolutely thrilled that someone would acknowledge her like that,” Eans said. “For Nancy to take time to come out, interview and take a photo, it was really an honor.”
Susan McCarthy of Connellsville has known Henry's family as far back as 1966. She became friends with Henry when they attended West Virginia University.
“Nancy, Denise Fox Coleman and I shared an apartment for about a year in Morgantown,” McCarthy said. “Life then took us our separate ways, and we continued our friendship when I returned to Fayette County about 16 years ago.”
McCarthy said she and Henry shared a love of the WVU Mountaineers and the City of Morgantown.
“Nancy was a great friend and wonderful person,” McCarthy said. “She had a good heart and was one of Connellsville's greatest supporters.”
“This is very sad news for our community,” said Connellsville Mayor Greg Lincoln.
Henry was certainly one of Connellsville's greatest supporters while she was the former president of the Greater Connellsville Chamber of Commerce.
“Nancy was such a vital part of this community, she was instrumental in relaying information to the community at large concerning the goings on in Connellsville,” said Brooke Deason, the chamber's manager, in a statement. “She believed in the chamber and her community. We will miss her articles in the Courier as well as her smiling face around the community. This is such a huge blow to the community of Connellsville.”
Shirley Rosenberger with Project Talent Theatre Workshop in Connellsville said Henry was one of the nicest people she has ever met.
“Her heart was focused on Connellsville, and it was a better place because of her,” Rosenberger said.
Chip Rowan, executive director of Connellsville Community Ministries, said Henry has given publicity and support to the ministries with her articles and column in the Daily Courier.
Rowan said Henry kept the ministries in the public eye and helped promote two fundraising campaigns in which more than $200,000 was raised for the ministries.
“Connellsville Area Community Ministries lost a special friend and a tremendous cheerleader,” Rowan said. “This is a loss to our entire community.”
Community vision
Michael Edwards with the Connellsville Redevelopment Authority and the Fayette Cultural Trust said Henry was a good friend to him and Daniel Cocks with their work in the cultural trust. He said Henry saw the vision they wanted for the community.
“She was 110 percent in support of it,” Edwards said, adding that Henry would talk and email with him at all hours to make sure information was correct for her column.
“She also helped to put together the Downtown Connellsville newsletter,” Edwards said.
Edwards said Henry was a regular at the farmers market and would let him know if she was running late. She recently picked up a bouquet of flowers for her mother, and she would get a parsley plant from him every year and keep it at her back door.
“She told me that she would snack on it while watching the hummingbirds in her garden,” Edwards said.
Lori Kaczmarek has known Henry for 15 years. Henry was her first friend when she joined the chamber of commerce.
“She genuinely cared for everyone in her life, both personally and professionally,” Kaczmarek said. “She was most proud of her family and especially her nieces and nephew.”
Kaczmarek said Henry was a great listener and enjoyed stories about Kaczmarek's daughters. Henry was a great storyteller, always making Kaczmarek laugh.
“She was an ambassador for the Connellsville community, volunteering for events, attending most functions held by the local organizations or chamber and most notably for her weekly column in the Courier,” Kaczmarek said.
The Daily Courier family shared their condolences and memories.
“Nancy was loved by the Connellsville community and by the staff of the Daily Courier,” said Roxanne Abramowitz, Daily Courier news editor.
“She was a wonderful person,” said Rose Snyder, Daily Courier city editor, who worked with Henry for many years.
Blended business, pleasure
Bonnie Killar, an AdService team leader for Trib Total Media, shared a birthday month and cake with Henry for years at the Daily Courier, earning the nickname “February Babies.”
“When Nancy is on the scene at a social function, she could either be there ‘doing a story' or just enjoying herself,” Killar said. “When I saw Nancy at the (Fayette) fair, I asked if it's for business or pleasure, and she said pleasure. Always smiling, she enjoyed both.”
Daily Courier advertising representatives Joanne Richey and Tim Turko came to know Henry when they sold advertising for a rival newspaper.
“She and I started 20-plus years ago,” Richey said, adding that even though Henry worked for the opposing team, she was always a pleasure, and it became even better when she and Richey started working on the same team. “She was an ad rep that all of us looked up to. She was a mentor.”
“She was well-liked and well-respected in the business community,” Turko said, adding that Henry would go the extra mile for her accounts.
Turko said that Henry wrote some very nice articles about some of his advertising accounts.
“She was good at that because she knew them and she cared,” Turko said.
Daily Courier customer service representative Marsha Shaffer remembered going to Bud Murphy's with a group of co-workers every Sunday with Henry as part of the group. She stayed in touch with Henry after she left her full-time position.
“She would always have a nice, calm word to say to my late husband, Ron,” Shaffer said. “She was a funny person. She was good.”
“We are all going to miss her so deeply,” McCarthy said. “It is my hope that everyone will support and pray for her loving family at this extremely difficult time.”
Mark Hofmann is a staff writer with Trib Total Media.
