Judith Strimel, a Bayada home-health-care marketing administrator, died Sunday after a battle with cancer. She was 63 and lived in Wayne.
George and Judy, as she was known to friends and family, met in Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard, the island off the coast of Massachusetts, where they spent the first 10 years of their married life. Each had two children from previous marriages. George had daughters, Victoria and Gwyneth; Judy had a son, Jeremy, and daughter, Alison. But there was never talk of stepchildren, or half-brothers or half-sisters.
"We were and remain a dedicated family unit," George said
Judy at one point worked in Edgartown as a real-estate broker. "She sold the legendary TV anchorman Walter Cronkite and his wife, Betsy, their home on the island," her husband said.
Judy was born on the island to Manuel F. Correllus, a state forester for both Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, and Hilda Merritt Correllus, a registered nurse from Maine.
Daughter Gwyneth Wallace said some of her greatest memories are of the dinner table. "No matter how busy we all were, my mother always had dinner waiting for us, and she insisted on setting the table. That meant cloth napkins, salad and dinner forks, and place mats.
When it came to proper behavior, Judy Strimel reflected the ideals of an earlier age.
“She frowned on wearing blue jeans to classes," Alison Pratt said. "She urged us to be well-dressed to show respect for our school and our teachers."
Alison remembers the Brownie camping trips with her mother as a chaperone, and the time Judy accompanied her on a seventh-grade skiing trip. "She wasn't a skier, but she did so because she was so involved with her kids, she wanted us to enjoy our childhood."
Son Jeremy Pratt remembers with fondness baseball trips he and his mother made to Boston to watch the Red Sox play. "She had no interest in sports, let alone baseball, but she wanted me to have a good time," he said.
Judy was an active member of the Community Garden Club of Wayne, the Wayne Business Association and the Main Line Chamber of Commerce.
She had no other immediate survivors.
Services: Memorial service 4 p.m. Saturday in the garden of the Strimel home at 47 Louella Court, Wayne, followed by a celebration of her life on Martha's Vineyard in September.
Contributions may be made to Radnor Memorial Library, 114 West Wayne Ave., Wayne, PA. 19087.
Contact John F. Morrison at 215-854-5573 or morrisj@phillynews.com, or on Twitter @johnfmorrison.
