Delmont parklet named to honor the late Rose Wigfield

Delmont council will name the parklet on Greensburg Street in memory of resident Rose Wigfield, who lived in the borough for more than a century.

Wigfield died in January at the age of 104.

“If you lived in Delmont, you knew ‘Grandma Rose,'” said Roseann March of Salem, Wigfield's granddaughter. “She was very humble. She was the last person to expect a park to be named for her.”

Wigfield was also a founding member of the Delmont Fireman's Ladies Auxiliary in 1947, according to Virginia Deruelle, 92, of Delmont, who grew up with Wigfield, worked alongside her in the ladies' auxiliary and remained friends with her for eight decades.

“She was great,” Deruelle said. “Her mind was sharp as a tack, and I always had fun with her. She was a queen.”

March lived with her grandmother when she was growing up, and said Wigfield was not only community-oriented, but did not shy from speaking her mind.

“She was this little 100-pound person, but she was the matriarch of our family, no question,” March said. “If Grandma Rose was mad, you knew about it.”

Wigfield was the wife of the late Clarence L. Wigfield and sister of the late Josie Brunclik and Bertha Blasco.

Her family name will live on in the town she loved.

“She used to say that she didn't care if she ever left Delmont, and I think she may have actually only left a couple of times,” March said.

In addition to getting a name, the parklet will also have an address, 27 Greensburg St. Council voted 5-0 at its March meeting to name it in Wigfield's honor.

Patrick Varine is a staff writer for the Tribune-Review. He can be reached at 724-850-2862 or pvarine@tribweb.com.