DORNENBURG

Eleanor Brown

The youngest Red Cross Volunteer during World War I died on November 22 at the age of 97.  Her task then as a two-year old was to walk under the sewing machines and pick up the pins as her mother and others made bandages for the war effort.  She attended grade school in a two-room schoolhouse in Perrysville and graduated from both Perry High School and the University of Pittsburgh two years early. She then secured a master of social work degree from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. While in Washington she made follow-up visits on requests for help mailed to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.After an eight-year courtship beginning in her freshman year at Pitt she married William Dornenburg.  Upon her husband’s graduation from law school and his commission in the Army Air Force, she accompanied him on his assignment as commander of the flight training base in Thomasville, Georgia for the duration of WW II.  Upon their return to Pittsburgh she became a supervisor of social workers for Catholic Charities of Pittsburgh, resigning that post in 1953 to manage her husband’s law practice for the next thirty-seven years.She traveled extensively with her husband and various family members, including several trips on the cargo ship Americana along both coasts of South America.  Antarctica was the only continent she hadn’t visited at the time of her death.She served as the President of the College Club of Carnegie twice and was a member for over sixty years. She is survived by three children, Noreen, William (Rosemary) and Mary Dornenburg; a grandson, William (Barbara) Dornenburg of Dagsboro, DE; one great-granddaughter Allison and dozens of nieces, nephews, great and great-great nieces and nephews by marriage.  Her only brother, Joseph Brown, died several decades before her, leaving no children.Her funeral will be held at St Elizabeth Ann Seton Church (St. Luke’s) on Tuesday November 26 at 11 AM.EVERYONE PLEASE MEET AT CHURCH Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to the Red Cross for Philippines typhoon relief or to Catholic Charities of Pittsburgh

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