Obituary of Stella Rita Kurey

Stella Kurey passed away peacefully on June 3rd from natural causes. Stella was born on April 3, 1926 and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She was raised in a close Lithuanian family that had immigrated to the United States sometime around 1913. Her native language was Lithuanian. She learned English at the age of six when she entered grade school. As a teenager she attended Franklin K. Lane high school in Brooklyn when the school was first opened. As a young woman she worked on Wall Street in addition to working for her uncle who had started a clothing factory on Fifth Avenue in New York. During this time, she would travel by train to visit her future husband, Joe, who was attending Dartmouth College. She used to tell a story of how she would leave Hanover, NH, on Sunday night, sleep on the train, to arrive in New York City on Monday morning just in time for work. She married Joseph Kurey in 1949. Stella and Joe lived in Delaware for a few years when he was called up for the Naval Reserve during the Korean War. They then moved to Madison, New Jersey. She had four children: Patricia, Suzanne, Joseph and Peter and five grandchildren. Family members will remember holiday gatherings at the house in Madison with as many as twenty people for holiday dinners. She was an avid cook taking Chinese and Japanese cooking classes while raising four children. She would share her newly acquired cooking skills with the family during the holidays. She was involved in scouting in the late 1960s and early 1970s serving as a Cub Scout Den Mother and then as a Den Leader Coach for the local district. As Den Leader Coach she trained other women in how to develop educational and creative programs for Cub Scouts. Stella was always interested in crafts. Homemade gifts were always a staple of the holidays in her house in Madison, NJ. In addition to crafts, she was an avid painter focusing on still life painting and landscapes in the 1960s and 1970s. Many of her paintings are in the homes of her children and grandchildren to this day. In the 1970s she took up candle making in her kitchen. This launched a small business speaking to women's groups about candle making. She sold flower arrangements that incorporated her candles as part of her appearances. Her kitchen frequently looked like a candle factory. The scents she used wafted to the end of the block, so the entire neighborhood smelled like rose geranium, or whatever scent she happened to be using. Everyone knew when Stella was making candles. Her candle making led her to open a shop, Craftique, in Chester, NJ. Craftique sold candles as well as craft supplies, dried flowers, ribbon and finished crafts. Her success led her to open a second store that focused on supplies for folk art painting. Her husband, Joe, would join her in the business in the late 1980s. The store ran an extensive array of classes from dried flower arranging to folk art painting. In the early 1990s she sold her business and retired to Lake Wallenpaupack in northeastern Pennsylvania with her husband. She was always interested in gardening and retirement gave her the time to travel to many of the nurseries in northeastern Pennsylvania with her friends in search of just the right plants for her woodland garden. She was very active in the local garden club as well as the Red Hat Ladies. Some of her friends from the Red Hat Ladies were like the sisters she never had growing up. Stella was a lifelong traveler. She enjoyed trips to Hawaii, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Hong Kong and many other countries as well as in the U.S. One of her favorite trips was a boat cruise on the Rhine River in Germany when she was retired. When she traveled Stella wanted to see as much as possible. She was always up early in the morning and back to her accommodations late in the evening. She had endless energy and a thirst for learning other cultures. Late in life she moved into assisted living at Bethany Village in Pennsylvania with her husband. Her days were filled with local trips, crafts and visits from family and friends. It was a peaceful and bucolic way to spend her later years. Stella was a friend to everyone. A kinder gentler soul has never walked the earth. She will be greatly missed. Calling hours will be Wednesday, June 26th from 5 to 7 PM at Teeters' East Chapel, 505 Church St, Hawley, PA. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated, Thursday, June 27th at 10:00 at BVM Queen Of Peace Roman Catholic Church, 314 Chestnut Ave, Hawley by Rev. Richard W. Beck, Pastor. Burial will be in Indiantown Gap National Cemetery in Annville on Friday, June 28th at 11:30 AM