Corinne G. Shirk, formerly of Merchantville, NJ and Heron Point’s oldest resident passed away Monday, Feb. 16, 2015 at the age of 105. She was surrounded by her loving niece, Joan, and her caregiver, Pattie. Corrine was a teacher and retired from the Education Department on 07/74 after serving 34 years. Her hobbies were line dancing, handwork, knitting.
Corinne was one of the Seamen's Church ministry's most productive knitters - 275 watchcaps in three years - Every ship that has called in Philadelphia for 150 years between Thanksgiving and Christmas has received a package for each seafarer on board.Corrine saw a newspaper advertisement, placed by the New York seamen's center. She didn't do anything about the ad at first.Years later, though, she was feeling dejected, she said, and her priest told her to do something to help others. She recalled the ad then, and called the Seamen's Center here. They signed her up right away.In 1983 at age 84, she still knits while watching television and taking bus trips. When gymnastics and figure skating are on television, the caps have a simple design. The rest of what's on television, she said, "doesn't require much attention," so her designs get pretty colorful.Her own sons lived in Japan, British Columbia and Maine and didn't get home much now "so the boys on the ships have become my Christmas," she said on Christmas Eve. "I love waking up on Christmas morning, knowing that boys all over the world are saying, 'Oh boy! I've got a new hat.'
In 1986 she was one of eight women honored by The Camden County Historical Society who spent more than 14 months embroidering the new crewel-work paneled bedhangings that surround the four-poster bed in the master bedroom of Pomona Hall, the restored 18th-century house on Park Boulevard in Camden.There will be no service. Arrangements by Galena Funeral Home of Stephen L. Schaech.
http://articles.philly.com/1986-04-09/news/26080212_1_designs-linen-embroidery
http://articles.philly.com/1993-12-27/business/25942570_1_seafarers-seamen-s-church-institute-ports