Minerva C. O’Donnell, 89

Former Woodmere resident Minerva C. O’Donnell in Honesdale, Pa., died on March 1. She was 89.

Born in Astoria, Queens on Jan. 26, 1929, O’Donnell was the daughter of William and Henrietta Clausen The family moved to Cedarhurst when O’Donnell was young.

Tragedy struck the Clausens when she was 12. Her father and oldest sister, who was 20, died. “This must have been a very difficult time for my grandmother and this family,” said O’Donnell’s daughter, Christine Burg. “To lose your husband and a daughter within six months of each other.”

After Lawrence High School, she worked as an assistant for a dentist in Far Rockaway. She met and married John (Jack) C. O’Donnell in 1953, and the two lived in Woodmere until retiring to Tafton, Pa., in 1985. Jack, a former chief of the Woodmere Fire Department, died in 2003.

The two had enjoyed golfing during the summers, her daughter said. “Mom was always active,” Burg said. “From making any repairs on her home, gardening, to cutting trees if necessary. She also had her quiet time watching TV and playing her piano. Her children were her life.”

O’Donnell is survived by Christine, who lives in Woodmere with her husband Joseph Burg Jr., and another daughter, Patricia Proppé, who lives in White Mills, Pa., with her husband Robert Proppé; as well as a sister, Betty Napolitano of Lawrence, and several nieces and nephews. Five sisters and a brother also predeceased her.

Services were help at Meserole’s Five Towns Funeral Home on March 6. Interment was at Trinity-St. John’s Episcopal Churchyard in Hewlett, one day later.