Elva M. Calemine
1928-2018
Elva Marie “Diehl” Calemine, age 90, passed away at her home in Keyser shortly after midnight on Monday, December 31, 2018.
Elva was born December 6, 1928, in Hancock, Maryland, to the late George McKinley and Lydia M. (Mitchell) Diehl.
She often told stories about her hard scrabble yet carefree childhood growing up near the canal during the Great Depression. Her beloved cow Bessie was washed away in the 1936 flood.
Elva loved walks in nature and had a plainspoken and dry sense of humor that would leave listeners suddenly in stitches.
After graduating from Hancock High School in 1946, Elva went to Cumberland for nursing school at Memorial Hospital where she graduated in 1949 and made several lifelong friends. Around this time, in 1950, she met and married her husband Reno Calemine.
Elva spent the bulk of her career as a registered nurse caring for patients at Potomac Valley Hospital, Lions Manor Nursing Home, and later at Heartland of Keyser Nursing Home until her retirement.
Elva and Reno raised a son and daughter and helped raise grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Elva loved to travel. She and Reno made several cross country road trips, trying to visit every state Capitol. She also traveled to England, Scotland, continental Europe, and the Holy Land.
She was a parishioner and volunteer of the Church of the Assumption in Keyser as well as the Ladies Guild of the church.
In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her beloved husband Reno; her brothers Grant and David Diehl, killed in action in World War II and her son-in-law Howard James Hastings, Jr. Elva is survived by her son Joe Calemine, daughter Carla Hastings, nephew Joe Diehl, daughter-in-law Sue Calemine, three grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.
Friends were received at the Smith Funeral Home, Keyser Chapel, on Sunday, January 6, 2019. Mass of the Christian Burial was celebrated at the Church of the Assumption, Keyser, on Monday, January 7, 2019 at 10 a.m. with Father Thomas Anatharackal as celebrant. Private interment will be in the St. Thomas Cemetery, Keyser.
Condolences and personal reflections to the family may be left after Mrs. Calemine’s obituary at smithfuneral homes.net.
paid obituary
