CLARKS SUMMIT — Imagine living to be 106 and still going strong. That’s the age of the oldest resident of Clarks Summit Senior Living resident Marian Pysh.
Marian celebrated her 10th birthday on Jan. 3 with a birthday party in her honor at the Tavern, which is the café at Clarks Summit Senior Living. More than 50 people attended the celebration that featured cake, balloons and a dinner.
Marian was born in 1911 in her hometown of Dickson City. Her father, Elmer Roy Mott, was a carpenter and a member of the Clarks Summit United Methodist Church. Her mother, Mary Ellen Gaughan Mott, was an Irish immigrant.
Marian remembers a time before electric or gas heat when people used wood-burning stoves or coal stoves to heat their homes. Her mother kept the beds warm by wrapping lumps of coal in a towel and placing them under the covers.
“There’s not too many people left who do that,” she said. “A lot of them are gone.”
Marian graduated from high school (Scranton Technical High School) in 1929, the year of the stock market crash and the beginning of the Great Depression.
“People without coal, heat and welfare, they had to go out and pick coal,” she said. “You’d pick coal. Then, you’d sell it. It was hard.”
Marian also remembers when people canned fruits and vegetables because there weren’t many stores during her time. She herself enjoyed canning tomatoes and huckleberries.
“People did it,” she said. “That was natural. You canned tomatoes and things from the garden. That’s how you do it.”
Marian met her husband, Harry Pysh, when they both worked for the newspaper, The Scranton Republican, the precursor to the Times Tribune. Harry worked as a printer while Marian worked as a substitute switchboard operator during the night shift.
“They (Scranton Republican) had it (switchboard) on 24 hours,” she said.
When Marian and Harry were married, they lived in Scranton’s Green Ridge section. They had one son, Paul. After Paul, who is currently in his 80s, was in high school, he was enlisted in the US Air Force during the Korean War. Afterwards, he graduated from The University of Scranton.
Marian is also a grandmother to two grandsons, James and Jared Pysh, and one granddaughter Kimberly Pysh. She is also a great-grandmother to 11-year-old Evan Pysh (Jared’s son).
After retiring from the Scranton Republican, Marian became a volunteer at St. Joseph’s Center in Scranton where she spent time and played with paralyzed children.
We would take them (the children) outside,” she said. “It was good to see the smiles on their faces.”
Marian has been a resident of Clarks Summit Senior Living for 14 years. She enjoys living here and believes the residents are treated nicely.
A picture of the four generations of the Pysh family taken in 2007 shows, clockwise from top, Paul Pysh, son; Marian Pysh, mother; Jared Pysh, grandson; holding his son, Evan Pysh, great-grandson.
