Earlene Mae Baal, 94, died March 8, 2023, in Good Samaritan Hospital after a brief illness. She was the daughter of Esther S. Ney and the widow of Anthony M. Baal. Although she spent most of her life in northern Lebanon County, she last resided at Kindred Place in Annville, and then at the Lebanon Valley Home.
Survivors include three sons: Rev. Michael Baal, of Jonestown, and twins, Frederick Baal, of Selinsgrove, and Thomas Baal, of Lebanon.
Earlene was retired, having served for thirty-six years as a public school teacher.
Earlene was born on a farm in Swatara Township on July 5, 1928.
A 1944 graduate of Fredericksburg High School, she was granted a B. S. in music education from West Chester College in 1948. After teaching music at the South Lebanon School for three years, she transitioned to teaching fourth grade at the Ebenezer School, earning the necessary credits for elementary education certification at Millersville College. With the formation of the Northern Lebanon School District, Mrs. Baal began teaching fourth grade at the Lickdale Elementary School. A brief switch to a third-grade class preceded a move to Fredericksburg Elementary School. Earlene returned to study at Millersville and earned an M.Ed. with certification as a reading specialist. For the remainder of her teaching career, she was a reading teacher; in those years, she spent some time teaching in the remaining elementary buildings of the school district: East Hanover and Jonestown. After retirement, she volunteered for a time as a reading tutor and for many years at the Matthews Library in Fredericksburg.
Earlene enjoyed a lifelong love of music. In her younger days, she was a guest soloist in many area churches, and she was an honor soloist for her baccalaureate service at West Chester in 1948. She worked for a few years as a church choir director, and for many years later, sang in the church choir at St. John’s United Church of Christ, Jonestown. Over the years she sang with the Lebanon Choral Society, a ladies’ barbershop chorus, and a ladies’ quartet. After retiring, Earlene enjoyed traveling widely throughout the United States and to Europe and Australia. She also served as a Deacon on the Consistory of St. John’s Church. After moving to Kindred Place, Earlene enjoyed working on jigsaw puzzles and continued to pursue a lifelong passion for reading.
Memorial services will be at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, March 16, 2023, at St. John’s United Church of Christ, 120 W. Market St., Jonestown. A visitation will be held one hour prior to the service. Interment will follow at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to her church at P.O. Box 688, Jonestown, PA 17038.