Devoted wife, mother and grandmother was 'very spirited'
They dated for about a year before joining in a marriage that lasted 65 years. But it all started with a Saturday night at a McKeesport dance hall, where a young man asked a young woman to a dance.
“They used to have big bands down there all the time and that,” Richard Shuster said of meeting his wife, Irene. “That's where it all happened. That's how it all got started.”
Irene Shuster of North Huntingdon died Thursday, Dec. 22, 2016. She was 86.
She spent her lifetime in Southwestern Pennsylvania, where she was a devoted wife and a proud mother and grandmother, Richard Shuster said.
Mrs. Shuster was born in Glassport in 1930 to the late Michael and Angela Golik. She was a member of St. Agnes Parish and a lifetime member of the Christian Mothers.
She worked several jobs during her professional life, including as an employee for a Pittsburgh stockbroker and as a sales representative for Horne's Department Store.
Most of all, Richard Shuster said, she was the mother to a household where five children were raised, a “loving wife” and a “very spirited” and happy person.
Later, she became a grandmother of five grandchildren whom she cherished and loved spending time with.
“They loved her,” Richard Shuster said of his children and grandchildren. “They all cared for her very much.”
In addition to her husband, Mrs. Shuster is survived by children, Karen Campbell and her husband, David, of Monroeville; Susan Shuster of Edgewood; Karl Shuster and his wife, Patricia, of New Hampshire; Chris Shuster and his wife, Jamie, of Butler; and five grandchildren.
Friends will be received from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the James W. Shirley Funeral Home in North Huntingdon. A Mass of Christian Burial will take place 10 a.m. Monday in St. Agnes Church, North Huntingdon. Interment will be at Penn Lincoln Memorial Park.
Memorials may be made to the National Kidney Foundation.
Michael Walton is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-850-1290 or mwalton@tribweb.com
