Hermine Barbara Butch

After having lived a long and accomplished life, Hermine P. Butch passed away on August 21st, at the age of 96, in the loving company of her children and daughter-in-law.

Beloved mother of John (Cheryl), Mary Sue (Ron) Grosser and Tom (Mary Beth); Loving grandmother of Jill, Eric, Jonathan and Julia; Dearest Great-grandmother of Sammy. Sister of Mario Pellegrini (Nanette), Arthur Pellegrini (Catherine), and the late William Pellegrini Jr.

Born in 1927, Hermine often told stories of her childhood during the Great Depression, when passersby would offer a day’s work at her father’s general contracting business in exchange for picking and eating dandelions from the family’s yard in Brookline.

Hermine attended St. Justin’s High School, where she was a cheerleader and received numerous academic honors. After graduating at age 16, she attended Duquesne University, earning her tuition by doing after-school secretarial work for two university deans and working the candy counter at Kauffman’s department store.

After college, and a stint working in Human Resources for Kauffman’s, she married Duquesne classmate John J. Butch, a classical pianist turned World War II infantryman, who had served in the war’s European theater, including the D Day invasion. With John, she would give birth to three children—John, Jr., Mary Sue and Tom—becoming a full-time homemaker and ultimately settling in Mt. Lebanon.

John’s untimely death at the age of 50 left Hermine, then 43, with the responsibility to finish raising the children, care for her aging parents, and take on the family’s financial responsibilities, on her own. She did not flinch, returning to Duquesne to earn a master’s degree and securing a job as a caseworker in the office of then-Congressman H. John Heinz III. When Heinz later became a senator, she ran his statewide casework operation until her retirement in 1991.

In retirement, Hermine volunteered as a docent at Clayton, home of Pittsburgh industrialist Henry Clay Frick, and sang in the choir of St. Bernard’s church, Mt. Lebanon. In her last years, even in dementia, she freely and frequently expressed her love for her family and gratitude for the life she lived.

Family and friends welcome Saturday, August 24th, from 8:00 - 9:30 a.m., at Laughlin Cremation and Funeral Tributes Inc., 222 Washington Road, Mt. Lebanon, PA 15216. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:00 a.m., at St. Michael the Archangel Parish, St. Bernard Church, 311 Washington Road, Mount Lebanon PA, 15216. Interment to follow in Queen of Heaven Cemetery.

Hermine’s wishes included consideration of donations to St. Bernard Church, Mt. Lebanon, (smapgh.org) or St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, Memphis (stjude.org).

www.laughlinfuneralhome.com

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