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Note: Her middle name was to be Louise not Lois but is misspelled on her birth certificate [Spelling was supplied by her mother]. She was born in Clarks Summit, Pa. probably in her Phillips grandparents home but moved withen one month to Lake Arial Pa. with her parents. She was baptized at the Lake Ariel Methodist Church on 22 Jun. 1924. She attended Pa. schools (her school report cards have very high grades] until the family moved to Warwick, NY. she attended Warwick High School (earning a school letter in track, [High Jump) until her marriage when she left school in her junior year. The family first lived in a home on the Warwick/Franklin Road then moved to a farm located where the present Central School is, then to Bellvale and then to Orchard Street in Warwick NY where she met her husband. Notice in the Warwick Papers "Ward - Phillips Mr and Mrs Stanley Phillips of 11 Orchard street announce the marriage of their daughter Irene Louise to Frank Edward Ward Jr. The couple were married on Saturday evening, June 6th at the home of the Rev. O. M. Taylor, Jr. at Westtown NY. They were attended by the bride's father and the groom's mother. Irene's history until separation from her husband Frank, is similar to his except that she was very sociable and was active in Grange, 4-H Club, and many other activities. Irene was the person who would host the Family Reunions, the Thanksgiving Diners, the Christmas Diners and multiple family holidays. Her home, especially at Van Etten Farm in Port Jervis, was always filled with relatives and/or friends for varying lengths of time. In addition to raising seven children she maintained a home (with a prodigious amount of gardening and canning "enough for two vegetables, and one fruit dessert at every meal"). In the early years most of this was on wood or coal fired stoves. She was an accomplished seamstress, making much of her daughters clothing. A sister-in-law , Betty Cusimano, remembers the quality of a special garment she made for herself to wear for her "high school public speaking debut". Her separation from her husband was gradual, beginning in about 1960 and completed by about 1964. She then began a new life [she was known as Mrs. George Ackerson for the last 25 years of her life] and soon purchased a home at 23 Belmont Avenue, Middletown, NY where she boarded homeopathic patients from the Middletown State Hospital until her "retirement" when 65. Her home at Middletown was, as always, the center of and the site of many family affairs. She began to exhibit medical problems in late 1990, but refused, even when urged by her children, to see a Medical Doctor relying instead on chiropractic manipulation for her hypertension. This condition culminated in a cerebral hemmorage on January 25th 1991 when she slipped into a comatose state. She was placed on life support at Horton Hospital and lingered in that supported condition until she was removed on March 2nd. She held onto life until March 12th when she died at about 10 am, never having regained concienceness.
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