Geraldine Carmeline Durning

Geraldine Carmeline Durning, longtime resident of Sussex County, dies at the age of 106. She had wonderful tales to tell of her immigrant Italian upbringing in Youngstown, Ohio: large vegetable gardens, wood burning pizza ovens, hunting, and foraging in nature. She was a true gourmet and champion of locally grown produce and meat before it became fashionable.

Married mid-depression, she joined her husband, Harry Durning, a government engineer, in traveling throughout the country, in the early days of aviation to switch over manufacturing from peacetime to wartime production, in preparation for WWII. His career took him finally to Picatinny Arsenal and they made a home in Sussex County on Lake Wallkill Road.

With great style Geraldine remodeled a 1905 barn, creating a cozy, charming home as well as award winning gardens.

She was a member of various garden clubs as well as a frequent judge of flower arranging at the Sussex County Farm and Horse Show.

Being a "modern woman,” she developed a career of her own, working as the longtime Executive Secretary of the Morley Shirt Company in Franklin, N.J.

In her retirement, along with her companion, Harvey Wood, she became active in the Sussex County Horse Show and assisted in the planning of their events.

She traveled extensively and reading was her passion. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations to Friends of Sussex-Wantage Library Memorial Fund, 69 Route 639, Wantage, NJ 07461.

Geraldine is survived by her niece and nephew, Marjorie and Edwin Silverman; nephew, Bill Durning; great niece and nephew, Maria Silverman and Bill Dunn; great nephew, Alexei Silverman and his son, Nathaniel; cousin, Bob Izzo of Virginia, and her good friend, Nancy Case; as well as, all the Cohol family in Youngstown, Ohio, and the family of Harvey Wood.

Friends may pay their respects to the family on Tuesday, June 16, 2015, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at St. Monica R.C. Church, 33 Unionville Avenue, Sussex. Mass of Christian Burial will immediately follow at 11:30 a.m. at the church. Private interment services will commence at the convenience of the family alongside her husband at Calvary Cemetery in Youngstown, Ohio. Funeral services have been entrusted to the Pinkel Funeral Home, 31 Bank Street (Route 23), Sussex. Online condolences may be offered to the family at www.pinkelfuneralhome.com.