Stories about South Jerseyans and how they lived

Jacqueline M. “Jackie” Hall 

Jacqueline “Jackie” Hall made a lifetime of connections.

The 70-year-old was one of five children, a passel of kids described as a “spirited crew” in her obituary. She made friends for life with classmates from grammar school and Haddon Heights High School. She had a “contagious” laugh. She showed insight, integrity and compassion as a fraud investigator for the Camden County Board of Social Services. 

And then there were the 128 rides, 213 hours and 1,504 miles Jackie logged as a volunteer at Interfaith Caregivers of New Jersey, a Haddonfield agency that offers transportation and other services for seniors. 

“She truly was an amazing woman,” recalled Amy Hood, a service coordinator for Interfaith. “She loved volunteering and was always willing to jump right in. She was one of our kindest volunteers.” 

“She was the kind of person who made you a better human just by knowing her,” Jackie’s obit says. “She had a way of making people feel seen and heard.” 

It is said Jackie enjoyed her cocktails – two at the most – as long as people came with them. She shared sports, travel, “good advice” and meals. Jackie met the love of her life in her early 30s, then reconnected with him years later. They were together six years when she died last month. 

“Above all,” her family emphasized, “Jackie showed up fully every time, with warmth, wit and a fierce kind of love.” 

And she showed up to transport her elderly passengers. 

“Jackie had an amazing relationship with everyone she encountered,” Hood marveled. “Clients would request her as a driver because she treated them so well. 

“She will be missed.”

Sources: The Sun, Healey Funeral Homes 

Rev. Donald Fletcher 

The Rev. Donald Fletcher lived a long and vivid life before he passed last month at 106. The Voorhees resident wrote nine books and a number of short stories, along with dozens of poems, many after surviving cancer at 80.

In one of those poems, “Trees … All Things Made New,” the former Cherry Hill West English teacher reflected on his own advanced age. 

Noble trees, you had a small beginning,

You and I both; but with the years, so many

And kind and prosperous, we have grown old,

I older than all of you, as it now seems … 

Donald began life as the son of Presbyterian medical missionaries in Korea, according to his obituary. He earned a bachelor’s and Ph.D in English, and a master’s of divinity. He was ordained in 1943, serving the Presbyterian Church (USA) as a missionary in Chile. 

Besides teaching in Cherry Hill, Fletcher was a member of its school board. In retirement, he preached and pastored in North Jersey, joined by his wife Martha, who played church music. He was long into life when he and Martha moved to Lions Gate independent living, where Donald cared for his wife until her death from Alzheimer’s in 2014.

But he had more in him: Donald was 104 when he published “Trees … All Things Made New.” He was still two years from death.

… My bloom of youth is long gone by; 

my autumn days dwindling toward winter;

but with peace, and hope 

Sources: Schetter Funeral Home, Legacy.com

Inside the obits                                                     

Theresa Orth could give “the look,” what we all know as a firm sign of disapproval. In the Maple Shade resident’s case, it was “infamous,” as Theresa’s obituary notes, but also loving in its intent. She also had happy catchphrases, wrote Rolf Benninghoven in an online tribute to Theresa, who died last month at 95, among them, “Can you imagine?” A Philadelphia native who worked for Lit Brothers department store and as a medical records clerk, Theresa married her husband, Lloyd, in 1968, relatively late for a woman of her time. Her five children fondly remember her meatloaf dinners and Tupperware pickles. She could also be heard singing songs from “The Sound of Music” around the house. Her favorite things? Mystery novels, shopping at Boscov’s, satisfying a sweet tooth, according to the obituary, and time with her five children, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. How many of them got “the look” has not been determined. (Sources: Schetter Funeral Home, Legacy.com)

A local newspaper once dubbed Loraine J. Dorney “the world’s most delightful bartender,” an honor she cherished, according to the 89-year-old’s obituary. The Gloucester County resident – who died last month – was ”behind the stick” for years at the Centerton County and Holly Hills country clubs, where she acquired not just customers, but friends. When Loraine took a break from the job, it was often for what she called “therapy sessions” at the Atlantic City casinos. She eventually took her knack for serving to a food management company and delivered not only breakfast and lunch to Delsea High School students, but “kindness and smiles,” too. After retirement at 78, Loraine enjoyed time with four children and a dozen grandchildren and great-grandchildren, eating out and indulging a number of pets. We suspect those indulgences were top shelf. (Sources: Farnelli Funeral Home, Legacy.com)

When James R. Vickers died last month at 68, he left behind not only a world “that was brighter for his presence,” as his obituary puts it, but one the Burlington County resident helped capture with his camera, a “series of snapshots filled with laughter, love and the occasional improvised gadget.” He shot babies, brides and sunsets, worked for the Bordentown Sewage Authority and was also a police photographer, chasing accidents and fires in a backward baseball cap, as Dody Wirth noted in an online tribute. As for the gadgets, his family explains, James was fond of fixing things with “a paper clip, duct tape” and his prized Swiss Army knife. Any way you slice it, James’ life was “a standup routine of joy, each moment a punchline.” “Jim was an all-around good person,” Wirth said. “ … He will be greatly missed.” As his obit notes, James came into the world in the cold of December, and spent the rest of his life warming it. 

Duly noted

One sang bubble-gum pop, the other wrote classic songs of summer. Bobby Sherman died last month, Brian Wilson two weeks earlier. They were joined in June by a man who created two words just as famous as any song title. Federal Express – now known as FedEx – was the brainchild of Frederick Smith, who founded the company after touching on the idea in a college term paper. Like many great brainstorms, it faltered at first. At one point, according to the Washington Post, Smith took his last $5,000 to a blackjack table in Vegas and won $27,000 – enough to keep his company going. FedEx now employs half a million people around the world. Smith led the company for an unheard of 50 years, during which that $5,000 made him a billionaire.

The Good Life appears twice a month. To suggest someone who recently passed away for a tribute,
email Christina Mitchell at cmitchell@donnelly.media. Please describe in a few words something about that person’s life.