Avis de décès de Florence-Johnston Maloney

MALONEY, Florence (Mae) Johnston, 94, of Tampa, passed away January 14, 2015. Florence Mae Johnston was born May 1, 1920 in Scranton Pennsylvania, the seventh child of James G. Johnston and Mary Whisted Johnston. There were nine children in all, but only two were daughters, Florence and her older sister, Marion. Florence attended public elementary, middle and high school in Scranton. After graduating high school, she moved to New York City to live with her married sister, Marion and her husband, Frank Wheeler. She enrolled in nursing school at Saint Francis School of Nursing in Brooklyn, New York. During her high school days in Scranton, she had met her future husband, Robert Maloney, who was now living with his family in Clifton, New Jersey which was only about 25 miles away. They resumed their relationship but, on a very restricted basis. Their activities were limited by her nurse training which allowed very little free time. Robert was also working as a machinist seven days a week at Curtis Propeller, which was a company that was engaged in the manufacture of critical defense materials. After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, time off was almost impossible to get. Florence graduated from nursing school and was later employed as a nurse while Robert had volunteered to enter the Army Air Corps pilot training program and was called to active duty as an aviation cadet. That training took him to assignments in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Florida. He was then assigned to active duty as a pilot of a B-17 Flying Fortress flying missions out of England against German targets. Florence spent many anxious days awaiting his safe return as he was shot down while flying a mission over Germany on his birthday and was reported as "missing in action". Robert returned to the states in March of 1945 and he and Florence were married at St. Ignatius Loyola Catholic Church on Park Avenue and 84th Street in New York City on April 28th of that year. Florence then spent the next 23 years as the wife of an Air Force Officer at many different locations across the globe. Their assignments took them to bases in Oklahoma, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Washington (DC), Texas, Kansas, Florida and New York, as well as, overseas to Vienna, Austria, and Kadena, Okinawa. She also travelled to Czechoslovakia, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Hawaii, Alaska, Canada, Mexico, Cuba and many Caribbean Islands. As the wife of a "service man", she graciously performed all the duties expected of a senior officer's wife, some charitable and others social. She volunteered in the base hospitals as a Gray Lady"(aka Red Cross)", she served as president of the church's Sodality, worked at the thrift shop, served on the "Welcoming Committee", counseled the wives of the junior officers on service connected problems, and was active in social functions such as bridge and tea parties. With two children she was also kept busy with her responsibilities as a mother. Her daughter, Patricia was born in Vienna, Austria on December 28, 1948 and her son, Robert in Tampa on January 15, 1957. She had five grandchildren: Craig who is a successful attorney practicing in the Atlanta area; Jessica who is in her final six months of her Emergency Medicine Residency at Allegheny Regional Medical Center in Pittsburgh; Sarah Margaret who lives in New Port Richey; Robert III who is a student at Piedmont College in Athens Georgia; and Katherine Mae who is attending USF. Florence was predeceased by her sister and seven brothers. Florence was very blessed to have her first great grandchild on September 29, 2014 as her oldest granddaughter, Jessica and her husband, Ryan welcomed into the world Jameson Maloney Drake. Florence enjoyed dining out, traveling, movies, playing bridge and church sponsored Bingo. She loved trips to the casinos in Biloxi or Las Vegas and enjoyed many summers at their cabin on Seventh Lake in the Adirondacks, NY. A funeral Mass will be conducted 11 a.m. Saturday, January 24, 2015 at St. Patrick Catholic Church. She will be interred alongside her late husband, Robert at 2 p.m. Monday, January 26, 2015 at Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell.