Apr 13, 2012 2 min read

Lela M. (Gallatin) Cummins, 91, a longtime resident of Greene County, passed away peacefully Thursday, April 12, 2012, in the Point Manor Personal Care Home in Point Marion.

Born in Taylorstown, Pa. on August 24, 1920, she was a daughter of the late William L. and Margaret (Parker) Gallatin.

A 1939 graduate of Point Marion High School, she was active in her youth at the Bobtown United Methodist Church, where she was a Sunday School teacher and president of the Greene County Sub-District Youth Fellowship.

After graduation, she was employed at the Pittsburgh Mercantile Company Store in Bobtown, prior to leaving for Washington, D.C. to work for the War Department. During her employment there, she was presented an award and citation by the Quartermaster General for excellence in work done in his office.

She later worked in the oil industry as an executive secretary, in New York City for Standard Oil and in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia for Gulf Oil. Wherever she lived and worked, she became active in various churches and charities, YMCA programming and industry clubs.

After retiring back to Greene County in 1972, living first at Davistown and later in Waynesburg, she joined the Order of the Easter Star, serving as Worthy Matron in the Masontown Chapter, and currently is a member of the Uniontown Chapter 263.

Lela enjoyed traveling and was fortunate to have visited eight European countries, Hawaii, and many of the Caribbean Islands. Throughout her career, she had the opportunity to meet Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Robert Kennedy, Jr., Dean of White House Correspondents Helen Thomas, presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ralph Nader, movie stars Henry Fonda and Robert Taylor, and noted psychologist, Dr. Joyce Brothers.

She is survived by two nieces, Patty Faverio and Noreen Howard; a nephew, Lonnie Dusenberry and her friends and caregivers for the past several years, Mary Lou and Larry Yost and their family.

She was preceded in death by brothers, Leland and Leonard Gallatin, and a sister Wilma Dusenberry.

Family and friends will gather at the Fairview Cemetery, Taylorstown, on Saturday, April 14, at 2:00 p.m. for a graveside service conducted by the Rev. Joseph Weaver. Arrangements are in the care of the RICHARD R. HEROD F U N E R A L H O M E , Point Marion, Pa. www.herod-rishel.com.