Wellsville, NY - Marcella (Colburn) Sweet, 93, passed away on,
May 31, 2019, at the Hart Comfort House in Wellsville, NY. A lifelong resident of Wellsville, Marcella
was born on, December 17, 1925, to William and Hazel (Burns) Colburn in
Wellsville, NY.
She attended the Immaculate Conception School and was a
graduate of Wellsville High School. After graduation, and while working at the
First Trust Union Bank, she took a day trip to Rushford Lake with a friend and
fell in love with a stretch of land on the North shore of Balcolm Beach in
Rushford, NY. She went back to work the next day and told her manager, E.J.
Brown, about the land, and he told her he would co-sign a loan for her so that
she could buy the land. She was 20 years old. After purchasing the land, only
then did she tell her father about it and he and her uncles went to work
building a cottage where the family spent summers for the next 45 years. She also taught at the Immaculate Conception
School and worked as a bookkeeper for Rockwell's Department Store, the family
run business in Wellsville.
Marcella met Paul at the Funland Roller Skating Rink in
Wellsville, NY, just after his return from the service in WWII and they were
married on April 20th, 1949. She and
Paul were married for nearly 50 years and raised three sons on Fassett Lane, in
Wellsville, NY, just a few houses away from her parents. Paul was the love of her life. Marcella & Paul enjoyed traveling and
frequenting Casino’s.
She was a communicant of the Immaculate Conception Catholic
Church and a member of the Altar and Rosary Society, charged with keeping the
church staffed during the week. She was
a member of the Beta Sigma Phi Sorority, a driver for the Wellsville Volunteer
Ambulance Corps and an avid card player who enjoyed playing and hosting the
local Bridge Club.
Marcella enjoyed anything that allowed her to
socialize. She loved meeting new people,
making new friends, and spending time with friends and family. She could make a new friend quite literally
while standing in line at the grocery store and truly believed that a stranger
was just a friend you hadn't yet met. In
later years she would travel around the county, sometimes 4 or 5 nights a week,
to play BINGO in different towns with different groups of friends.
Marcella was pre-deceased by her husband Paul B. Sweet and
her eldest son James P Sweet. She is survived by her daughter-in-law Beverly
(James) Sweet of Wellsville, sons Bill (Janet Kemp) Sweet of Wellsville,
Douglas Sweet of McKinney, TX, and grandsons Brian Sweet of Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam and Kevin Sweet of Las Vegas, NV, and several cousins.
A Memorial Mass will be celebrated on Saturday July 27 at 10
a.m. in the Immaculate Conception Church. Friends are invited to call at Church
from 9 a.m. until 10 a.m. prior to the Mass.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that a donation be made in her
name to the Hart House, the Immaculate Conception Church, the Wellsville
Volunteer Ambulance Corps, or the donor’s choice. To leave online condolences please visit www.embserfuneralhome.com.
