Alice Hippensteel Glawe

ALICE HIPPENSTEEL GLAWE

Born December of 1930 in Kingston, Pa. Resident of Wilkes-Barre. Daughter of Viola Elizabeth and Claude Edmond Hippensteel. Resident of Wyoming Valley and Ft. Myers Beach, FL.

Alice and John Glawe were married on June 26, 1951 and spent 55 years in marriage until John’s passing in 2006. They had three beautiful children, John Charles Glawe (deceased), Christina Glawe Rex and Cynthia Mailloux. She was also blessed with grandchildren, Tiffany Rex (great-grandchildren: Avery & Tyler Wojtowicz), Christina Rex-Remigio (great-granddaughter: Isabelle Skylar Remigio), Bradley Mailloux, and Clifford Mailloux (great grand-children: Thomas James & Catherine Elise Mailloux). She was also so lucky in life to be acquainted with dear friends Linda Rustay Unger, Loraine Clarke and Beverly Kelly.

Alice graduated from Meyers High School, Class of 1948, and then from Wyoming Seminary Dean’s School of Business. She was employed by Anthracite Institute at Hazard Insulated Wire Works, Division of the Okonite Company, where enduring friendships were made.

Following the Agnes Flood of 1972, Alice was treasurer, secretary and tax collector for ten years in Buck Township. For decades she became a “commentor” to a Harvard University theology profession who translated German books of a spiritual nature into English. Her love of writing was her most personal passion, and she also authored 25 autobiographical volumes containing all the events of her life from childhood to the present day. These volumes now passed down are a “Jewel” for her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and generations to come. For some, the piano is their instrument, for Alice, it was the typewriter, and the melodic beauty of hearing the sounds of her delicate fingers as they struck each key, as she recorded each memory.

Alice was nominated and ordained as an elder in the first “class” of inclusion of female elders of Westminster Presbyterian Church of Wilkes-Barre and was a member and soloist of its choirs. She served as an elder by chairing Christian Education, ecumenism, Music and Worship Committees and was one of Luzerne County’s Counsel of Church’s Lay Preachers. Following the Agnes flood in 1972, the family relocated to Indian Lake in Buck Township. She was president of Bear Creek’s Grace Chapel’s Guild for many years and soloist. In Florida, she transferred membership to Chapel by the Sea of Ft. Myers Beach where she sang for many years. Alice served on the Board of Directors as VP of the League of Women Voters and was on the board of the YWCA in Wilkes-Barre.

She was a retired member and international medalist of the Spirit of the Gulf, an international Sweet Adelines barbershop harmony chorus in Florida, competing internationally. Throughout her life, Alice created original monologues, entertaining as soloist/monologist in Luzerne County and in Florida.

Her regret is that she is not singing today. The woods, the Lake, the Gulf, churches and Chapels, brief encounters with a friend or two, and beloved children, grandchildren and great grandchildren were her joy. Although not in the pool at Fort Myers Beach, or in the water at Indian Lake, Alice will be aware of the songs of the birds, the deer, morning doves, the flowers – oh, those gardenias and orchids – and the mystic lights of the evening’s stars, for they are a part of her soul.

It was Alice’s wishes that in lieu of formal services, her immediate family gather at the Lake to tell a story, listen to a song, and have a glass of champagne. She encourages all that knew her to do the same.