Thelma Weaver Gentry

Thelma Mae Weaver Gentry, age 102, passed away on October 8, 2020 at Commonwealth Senior Living in Bel Air, Maryland. Born on February 7, 1918 to homesteader parents Thomas and Myrtle (Waddell) Weaver, Thelma spent the first few years of her life on the Montana prairie with sister Elma Mary. Thelma’s memories of Montana are vague, but she remembers “the layout of our little four room house and the open ground around it where we played under a clothes line; the gulley where I walked to pick wild roses; Mother driving the car (Model T) out on the prairie while Daddy rode on the running board with his gun to shoot the prairie chickens.” In late 1924, Thelma’s family moved back East to Maryland where her Weaver grandparents (originally from North Carolina) had purchased a farm. The young Weaver family bought their own place and settled into farming and dairying. Some years later, while attending a box supper social, Thelma met “a nice young man” who had also come to Maryland from North Carolina and was working on her Uncle Lloyd Weaver’s farm. Thelma graduated from Bel Air High School and went on to college, earning a degree from Western Maryland College in 1939. But that “nice young man” had been on the scene all along and in 1940 Thomas Gentry and Thelma Weaver were married. They raised a family of four children in Churchville, Maryland: Robert (Bob), Richard (Rick), Terrell (Terry), and Mary Ellen.
Tom and Thelma together built a very successful home construction business. In retirement, they were avid gardeners—Tom with his abundant vegetable garden and Thelma with beautiful flowers throughout the yard. A teacher by training, Thelma was a social worker at heart. Together, she and Tom delivered Meals on Wheels for over 25 years. They also were instrumental in starting a home for underprivileged boys. After Tom died in 2005, Thelma continued her social justice work through FISH of Harford County, Maryland. She was devoted to her church (Churchville Presbyterian Church) serving in many capacities through the years and at 102 years of age, she was the oldest member after 70 years of membership.
Thelma is survived by her sons, Bob (Jeannie) and Rick (Kathy); daughter-in-law, Patty; daughter, Mary Ellen Trusheim (Dale); 12 grandchildren and 20 great grandchildren.
In addition to her parents and husband, Thelma was preceded in death by her son Terry; sister Elma Mary Rinehart; sister Dorothy Weaver; and brother Wayne Weaver (infant).

Graveside service will be held privately under the caring guidance of the family owned and operated McComas Funeral Home.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to: Doctors Without Borders, PO Box 5030, Hagerstown, MD 21741-5030 or Harford Family House, 53 E Bel Air Ave # 3, Aberdeen, MD 21001.