Hazel May Stewart Herrman’s obituary, as published in The Princeton Packet, Princeton, New Jersey, Tuesday, September 12, 1995.

Hazel May was the daughter of Benjamin and Olive Albert Stewart. The Albert family was from York Haven, York County, PA. Hazel’s mother tragically died by drowning in York Haven (family lore is that Olive was murdered) when she was only three. Her parents had separated, with her father returning to his people in Conowingo,  Cecil County, Maryland sometime after her birth. At first her maternal grandparents helped raise her, but as a teenager she went to live with the Stewart family in Conowingo. There, she met and married Walter T. Herrman. When their children were young, Hazel and Walter decided to re-locate to Kingston, Middlesex, County, NJ where her brothers, Benjamin and Tom, were living.

Here below is a photograph taken in Kingston showing Hazel on the left, next to her brother, Benjamin Stewart, her daughter-in-law, Babe, and her sister-in-law, Maude.

In most of her photographs Hazel has a delightful smile on her beautiful face. Maybe her sunny disposition helped her in living past one hundred years, but then again it could have been simply the luck of the draw. She is the only centenarian in either my husband’s family or mine. Below is a newspaper article from when she had her special 100th birthday.

The photo below was taken at an Albert family reunion in York Haven, PA around 1930. Hazel is second from right, between her sister-in-law, Maude Stewart, and her aunt Estella Albert (holding the dog); her mother’s sister. Next to Estella is Hazel’s sister-in-law, Lilly, and her brother, Tom.

Hazel May Stewart Herrman is buried in the Kingston Presbyterian Methodist Church Cemetery, in Kingston, Somerset County, NJ. The cemetery is on the corner of Church Street and Lincoln Highway (Route 27).

Sunday’s Obituary is a blogging prompt suggested by GeneaBloggers, and was suggested by Leslie Ann at Ancestors Live Here.