Helen Dikun Maletta, age 102 of Pittsburgh, died Wednesday September 2, 2020 at Presbyterian Senior Care at The Willows in Oakmont, PA, where she had been residing for the last 6 months of her life. She was born October 16, 1917 in Hostetter, Westmoreland County, the daughter of the late Peter and Helen Krisa Dikun.
Helen, as the 3rd oldest of 12 children, grew up in Dry Tavern, PA, leaving home by age 15 to work first in Pittsburgh and then in New York City where for nearly 15 years she was gainfully employed by F.W. Woolworth as a hostess in their restaurant business. She lived and worked in New York through the Great Depression and war years, returning home in 1949 to Dry Tavern where she met and married John Maletta (deceased in 1999) and became a homemaker raising two children, John Jr. and Susan Elizabeth. Later Helen worked for the Curry Home (now Rolling Meadows) in Waynesburg, for 10 years before retiring from the workplace.
She was a member back then of Sacred Heart Church in Rices Landing, PA, and was active for many years at the Carmichaels Senior Center where she enjoyed volunteering her services, playing cards and line dancing. She also enjoyed travelling by bus or train on sightseeing tours, participating in family gatherings and events, and spending time with her adult children on family vacations as she aged gracefully and independently through her eighties and nineties. She loved coffee, honeybuns, line dancing, country and bluegrass music, playing Scrabble and watching baseball games, no matter which teams were playing.
Surviving are her son John Maletta Jr. of Pittsburgh, and her daughter Susan E. Stokes of Hillsborough, NJ, along with four siblings: Elizabeth “Libby” Senegar of Monroeville, Margaret Ferrari of Dry Tavern, George Dikun of Newfoundland, NJ, and Charles Dikun of Dry Tavern, plus many nieces and nephews.
Deceased are three sisters: Mary Gazy, Anna Hundrieser and Verna Dikun, and four brothers, John Dikun, Michael Dikun, Andrew Dikun, and a brother in infancy, Charles Dikun.
