Ida Jane (McGee) Gilchrest, 96 of Lancaster, PA passed through heavens gates November 19, 2022. She was born May 2, 1926 in Madison, Indiana the much loved and only child of the late Edgar C. and Martha M. (Phillips) McGee.
Janie graduated from Crothersville High School in 1944. She worked at Indiana Bell Phone Company in Madison as a switchboard operator. While connecting a call she heard the voice of a handsome young man Roger C. Gilchrest who asked her name and over the many days and weeks while connecting his calls they spoke often, met, dated, fell in love and married on July 10, 1955. They lived in the Albany, New York area as well as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area before moving to Willow Valley in 1994. He preceded her in death on February 6, 2009. In October Janie suffered a stroke and never fully recovered.
Janie and Roger enjoyed traveling, cruising and spending winters in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. She was an avid reader of fiction. Janie is survived by her sister-in-law Virginia Cooley of Dalton, Georgia, a brother-in-law and sister-in-law Donald and Elizabeth Gilchrest of Alexandria, Virginia, a cousin who was like a sister, Gene Dodd of Indiana, and many nieces and nephews.
Funeral services will be held on Tuesday, November 29, at 1 pm, graveside at United Church of Christ Cemetery, Peach Bottom Road, Willow Street PA 17584 with Chaplain Ken Phillips officiating. (Please be advised the cemetery has no street number so a house located across from the cemetery is 242 Peach Bottom Road, please use this for reference if attending in person).
For those unable to attend in person service will also be virtually by clicking the following link: https://my.gather.app/remember/ida-jane-gilchrest
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Willow Valley Brunner Nursing Education Fund, 600 Willow Valley Square, Lancaster, PA 17602.
Joyce Peden says
Sending my condolence in the passing of Ida Jane(which is what we called her.) she was my cousin. My Aunt Lucille was a close friend of Ida Jane’s , they worked together at the phone company. Aunt Lucille was my Dad’s youngest sister. I remember Ida Jane from family reunions and visits to her families home just down the street from my Grandma’s house.
Sounds like she and Roger had a happy life together. Joyce Phillips Peden