Jul 2, 2018

Joan Oliver Hrutkay of Somerset Township, daughter of the late Theresa Tiano and Antonio Oliverio, passed away one year ago, early Monday evening, July 3, 2017, in Donnell House, Washington, following a very courageous, yearlong battle with aggressive metastatic esophageal cancer. She was 82.

Joan was born March 2, 1935, in Belle Vernon. She was a 1952 graduate of Vernon High School, North Belle Vernon, and attended Robert Morris School, Pittsburgh, where she completed a secretarial skills course of study in 1953.

She was employed by several Belle Vernon area companies, including Lincoln Homes, Burnham Furnace, Page Steel and Wire Division, American Window Glass Co. and Guttman Oil Co.

At age 21, she moved to Anchorage, Alaska, where on February 4, 1956, she married Charles R. “Carl” Hrutkay, a Somerset Township native, at a ceremony on Elmendorf Air Force Base, where her new husband had presently been stationed.

The following year, a new assignment would require their move to the small town of Bloomsburg, a mere 4,222 mile drive from Anchorage. So the newlywed couple packed up their things, including their one-year-old Chihuahua, “Phillip Kent,” and set out on the road trip of a lifetime, which would find them on the Alcan Highway, the only road linking Alaska with the continental United States, across Canada.

At the time, the “Alcan” was a very rough, often unpaved and challenging drive. Even today, there are stretches of more than 200 miles between gas stations. Half a century later, Joan would still recount the story of her husband changing a flat tire at 3 a.m. in the Arctic winter cold, and how their little dog barked nonstop for the first three days on the road, but by the fourth day was too hoarse to make a sound.

By 1959, the couple returned to civilian life and took up residence for a few short years in Belle Vernon, during which time their first son was born.

In 1962, the young family moved once again, this time to Oriskany, a village in upstate New York, where Joan’s husband took a job as an aircraft mechanic for Mohawk Airlines at their maintenance and repair facility based at Oneida County Airport. In 1967, they welcomed the arrival of their second son.

Eventually, Joan also took employment at Oneida County Airport as a Pinkerton security guard, screening departing passengers through a metal detector and hand searching carry-on luggage for weapons and explosives at a time when airport security was a brand new concept, but before x-ray machines were in widespread use.

In 1975, Joan and her family relocated one last time, returning to their Southwestern Pennsylvania roots, taking up residence in Somerset Township, where both Joan and her husband would live out the rest of their years. Her husband died July 25, 1996, after 39 years of marriage.

Joan always took a keen interest in politics and frequently supported and campaigned for candidates of her choosing. She entered the political arena herself, twice elected as a Bentworth school director and serving a total of eight years on the board, a few years of which she also served as the school district treasurer.

Joan retired in September 1996, after 20 years of service at the Washington County Controller’s Office, where she worked as an accounts payable clerk. Once retired, she volunteered at Monongahela Valley Hospital, serving many years as an active member of its auxiliary.

In her spare time, Joan enjoyed cooking, reading, traveling, following the financial markets, investing and, for more than 40 years, collecting clown figurines from all over the world.

Additionally, Joan enjoyed playing cards with friends at area senior centers. Sundays were reserved for playing dominoes with lifelong friend Betty Turcaso, and occasional day trips to area casinos were enjoyed with her dear friend Norma Jobes. Joan especially loved to attend her high school reunions, which in recent years had become more frequent and always well planned and attended.

Surviving are two sons, Mark O. Hrutkay (Patricia Stone) of Kingsport, Tenn., and Charles S. Hrutkay of Somerset Township; grandson Gregory J. Hrutkay (Jessica Kidwell) of Morgantown, W.Va.; five brothers, Joseph of Belle Vernon, Thomas, John Rudolph and Theodore of Michigan and Paul Roland of Massachusetts; and many nieces, nephews, cousins and dear friends.

Joan was preceded in death by five brothers, Guy, Cozy, Mark Anthony, Nick and Phillip, and her only sister, Ida May Krandle, who passed away just six months before Joan.

At Joan’s request, there was no public viewing or service. Arrangements were entrusted to Thompson-Marodi Funeral Home, Bentleyville. She is interred in Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery, Monongahela.

The family requests memorial contributions be made to Concordia Hospice of Washington, Donnell House, 10 Leet Street, Washington, PA 15301.