OBITUARY
Zelma Mae Banks
September 25, 1920 – June 18, 2012
Zelma Mae Banks, a long-time resident of Margate, Florida and Andover, Massachusetts, passed away peacefully in her sleep on Monday, June 18, 2012 at the home of her son and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond E. Banks in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina where she had been residing. Zelma Banks was ninety-one.
Zelma was born on September 25, 1920 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania to Raymond Earl Brown and Iverda Mae (Campbell) Brown. The middle of three sisters, Zelma was raised in Johnstown with her older sister, Dorothy, and her younger sister Ruth. Following the outbreak of the second World War and shortly after her graduation from Johnstown High School, Zelma Banks went to support the war effort as a civil service sheet metal worker from 1941 to 1945 at the Charlestown Navy Yard. Like the famous American icon “Rosie the Riveter,” Zelma was one of the American women who inspired a social movement that increased the number of working American women from 12 million to 20 million. On April 16, 1946 she married the love of her life, William Francis Banks, a United States Marine who had been decorated with the Purple Heart for his service during World War II in the East Asia Pacific.
Following the war, Zelma worked in Massachusetts as a waitress and manager at Rodgers Restaurant and the Oar and Anchor in North Reading and then as a group leader at Transitron Electronic Corporation in Wakefield, and a supervisor at Honeywell Corporation in East Boston. In 1955, Zelma and Bill built a beautiful residence on Wildwood Road in Andover that became a joyous family gathering place for three decades. Their home was a solace of love and family that was featured in local papers for the beautiful Christmas decorations that they offered to their family, friends and the local community. Zelma was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend, who was deeply committed to her family and friends. She was an avid swimmer whose hobbies included raising rescue poodles, entertaining, travel, cooking, playing cards and bingo. She will be remembered foremost for her love of family and her central role in bringing people together. She represented the finest in family values and she will be missed by all who know her.
Zelma is predeceased by her husband, William Francis Banks and her sister Dorothy Evelyn (Brown) Nelson. She is survived by her son Raymond Edward Banks of North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and his wife Patricia; her grandson Steven Allen Banks of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; her sister Ruth Elizabeth (Brown) Beecher of Margate, Florida; her niece Barbara Iverda (Beecher) Ensslin of Paris, France and her husband Robert; her nephew William Gordon Beecher of Garland, Texas and his wife Darlene; and her poodle BiBi.
Arrangements: Services will be held at the Kraeer Funeral Home at 1 North State Road 7 in Margate, Florida 33063. Visitation will take place on Friday, June 22 from 4:00PM to 7:00PM. The funeral service will be held at Kraeer on Saturday, June 23 from 10:00AM to 11:00AM. Additional information can be found under “Obituaries and Services” at Kraeermargate.com. Interment will be at Forest Lawn Cemetery on Copans Road (immediate family only).
For those who wish to donate to a charity in lieu of flowers, they may visit www.Arthritis.org or www.HumaneSociety.org or www.cokesburymargate.org. Zelma’s family wishes to thank Marylou and Krimelda for their loving care during her last years at the Laurels of Margate and the team at Amedisys Hospice Services of South Carolina who cared for Zelma in the last week of her life.
She will be greatly missed by all those she touched in her life and who love her dearly.
Services
- Visitation Friday, June 22, 2012
- Funeral Service Saturday, June 23, 2012
REMEMBERING
Zelma Mae Banks
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RECEIVE UPDATESSeptember 25, 2017
Happy Birthday Auntie Zelma!
We miss you everyday and Love
you Forever, hug Uncle Bill !
Hope you are dancing as this is written,
it's almost ten o'clock, Happy Birthday Auntie! Love you Baby!
Barbara Ensslin
September 25, 2017
Dear Auntie Zel,
Remembering you today on what would have been your 97th birthday. Visited you and Uncle Bill at Forest Lawn. Mom is well and happy. We love you and miss you both so much. You will live in our hearts forever and ever!
Happy birthday
Love you, love you, love you!
Barbara and family
❤
September 21, 2017
Dear Auntie,
Four days until your Birthday ! Love and Best Wishes to you (& Uncle Bill) in Heaven,Auntie! We miss you! We can't have a BBQ without thoughts of your loving smile and warm ways. Love you forever Baby !
June 18, 2016
Dear Auntie !
What I would give for five mintues with your comforting smile, those piercing fierce twinkling blue eyes. your words of wisdom, your grace and sweet joy...love and miss you and Uncle Bill forever and ever and ever.
Barbara Ensslin
September 25, 2015
Dear Aunt Zelma,
We are celebrating you today on this anniversary of your birth, with hearts full of love and gratitude for the rich legacy that you left us. Miss you and Uncle Bill so much. You are with us each and every day.
Happy birthday, sweet auntie, from all of your family and friends.
Love, kisses and hugs,
Barbara
September 25, 2015
Happy Birthday Auntie Zelma,
May you celebrate with Uncle Bill, Dot and your loved ones with joy this day that you were born into this world, as much as we still miss you here every day. Your kindness and elegance live on through your niece, she has that quiet understanding too...
Love you Baby,thank you for everything. We miss you.
September 15, 2015
Dear Auntie,
You are terribly, horribly missed, mon petite confidante. I have your voice in my head, "we are so close because..."
but we miss you, we need you! Love you forever, miss you endlessly. RIP with Bill, the solace of knowing you are together gets me through. Love you.
June 24, 2015
Dear Auntie,
You are so missed! Darn! Wish we could talk about everything, everyday! You are so special, you and Unc. Bill - thank you as always, for the love you shared, I will miss you and love you forever and ever.
September 26, 2014
Here is your Birthday Candle Auntie,
I forgot to click on it!
Technology, Baby! Love you!
September 26, 2014
Happy Birthday Mother; We put a rose on your chair. We love you and miss you.
September 26, 2014
Happy Birthday Mother: We put a rose on your chair. Love you and miss you.
September 25, 2014
Happy Birthday Auntie Zel!
Not a day goes by without a thought of you and Bill, are you dancing as I write this? Did you celebrate with Dot? You are so missed, that sweet sweet smile, that adoring loving face, those fiercely blue eyes, love you and miss you forever.
Barbara Ensslin
August 25, 2014
Happy birthday, Aunt Zel!
Think of you every day and of all the lives that you and Uncle Bill enriched with your deep love. It is returned a million times today! You were a special gift to us all and we cherish the memories.
Your loving niece, Barbara
July 23, 2014
Dear Auntie,
Spoke to Barbara, it was so wonderful, but we so miss you so. it is still such an open wound without you here. All of our love to you and Bill, please know she and Tad are lovingly taking care of your little Sis who misses you everyday. Love you forever, and thank you, Baby.
June 25, 2014
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU
AND MISS MISS MISS YOU
FOREVER & EVER !
June 25, 2014
Love You Baby
June 24, 2014
Miss You, Baby
Not a day goes by without a thought of you & Bill
June 19, 2014
Dear Mother, I have been going through pictures of the family and it seems that life keeps slipping away. I can't believe it has been two years since you left us. I am proud that I had you and father as parents and that is why I turned out the way I did. Love you and miss you, Pat and Ray
krimilda
June 19, 2014
There are no words to express our sorrow. You were an inspiration to many of us and we all miss you each and every day.
Barbara Ensslin
June 18, 2014
Dear Aunt Zelma,
It has been two years today since you left us. Warm and loving memories of you will never fade, and your example of family values and deep commitment continue to be an inspiration to all those who love you. Your little sister is doing fine in her new home in Ft. Lauderdale, enjoying the dining, companionship and activities. You are always in mom's thoughts and she speaks of you when we visit or talk on the phone. Tad and I will be there to visit in a week.
We love you and miss you so very much,
Barbara and family
Barbara
September 25, 2013
Dear Aunt Zelma,
Happy birthday! Today, on what would have been your 93rd birthday, your family celebrates you and treasures what you mean to all of us who love you.
You are present with us tonight. I put a beautiful picture of you at your 90th birthday party on on our mantel in Paris so you are with us in this beautiful city that you were never able to visit. You are radiant and happy, next to your sister and draped in a happy birthday banner.
What fun we all had at that last great earthly birthday party on the Intracoastal in Fort Lauderdale, floating in the pool and admiring the 90 balloons strewn around the rented house. We hope that you are celebrating tonight and floating in the pools of heaven.
I just got off the phone with mom and she sends you her love and this message: Dear Zizzo. I miss you a lot. Love, Sis.
Happy birthday, sweet Auntie from Tad and me, and much love to Uncle Bill.
your adoring niece,
patricia & Raymond Banks
June 18, 2013
mother, we miss you and we put a rose on your chair in remembrance of you. love, Pat & Ray
Barbara Ensslin
June 18, 2013
Dear Aunt Zelma,
It has been a year today since you left us, dear Auntie. You (and Uncle Bill) remain in our thoughts and in our hearts.
Please know that we are taking good care of your sister. We love you with all our heart and hope you know how much we are thinking of you today and always.
We love you and miss you so much,
Barbara and Tad
Barbara Ensslin
September 25, 2012
Happy birthday, dear Aunt Zelma!
Today is September 25, 2012 and you would have been ninety-two. It has been a little over three months since you left us and we will never stop missing you.
Tad and I received last Friday from Pat and Ray the extraordinary portrait of you that Kraeer created for us. You are radiant in shimmering white, with a pearl rope necklace and a gorgeous and impeccable, silvery blond coiffure -- and the smile of an angel. We love you so much.
So, I left the precious portrait at home in Paris, and after making a color copy, we brought you with us on the train from Paris to Marseille. We are staying in the Hotel Grand Beauvau that looks straight onto the amazing old port of Marseille where you and Mom and Tad and I met up with each other twelve years ago during your 80th birthday cruise.
On your 80th, in September 2000, Tad and I were just settling into our new home and new jobs at the U.S. Embassy in Tunis. You and Mom cruised into Tunis on September 25, 2000, just for the afternoon. Tad and I picked you up with a car and driver and we took you back to our new home for a French chocolate birthday cake from a local bakery, then went on a tour of the city, stopping by our offices at the U.S. Embassy in Tunisia. After a quick windshield tour of Tunis we had to take you back to port all too soon to board your cruise.
Then, as you and Mom set sail for other ports, Tad and I flew to Belgium to pick up our car that was being shipped to us in Tunis . We raced across France to meet your ship at its Marseille port of call. We took you and Mom to the cafe at the top of the Vieux Port for breakfast. It was beautiful, I recall, with hundreds of boats shimmering in the sunshine at the picturesque, antique, long and narrow port. I remember thinking how much fun it was to be there with you.
Well, auntie, we took you to that same cafe this morning with us for a birthday breakfast. It would have been your 92nd. You sat on the wicker bistro chair beside me. Tad took a picture. Your spirit was there with us.
Tonight, Tad is back in Paris and you are sitting with me looking over the old port of Marseille from the hotel as a steaming vegetable casserole was brought to the room with crusty French bread. I think you would have liked it. No cake, but I hope you are having a great birthday cake (with ice cream!) up in heaven.
Love to Uncle Bill, Aunt Dot and all our friends and family there with you tonight .
Hope it is one heck of a party and that you are dancing up a storm.
I miss you so much but I am comforted knowing that your pain is gone. Tad joins me in sending love from the whole family,
Your Goddaughter and loving niece,
Barbara
PS - Your baby sister is fine.
Krimilda Duffy
July 23, 2012
Zelma, it has been a month and I still miss you. Yesterday was a very bleak Sunday so we lit your candle, you know the one, lilac with a design that glows gently when lit...I said a prayer for you, my friend, and hope that you are at peace and know that your friends still miss you very much. xoxo
June 22, 2012
Thank you Zelma,
For a lifetime of love and kindness, no words can adequately express the depth of loss that is felt, only to have known you is the greatest and only solace at this time. May you and Bill comfort the family and friends who mourn your loss so deeply.
Love you, Baby.
Your only,
Jilly
June 22, 2012
I have known Zelma for the 28 years we have lived as neighbors at the Laurels. She was always the most cheerful and loving person. Her sunny disposition will be missed. My heartfelt sympathy goes out to her entire family.
Elaine Rosenbaum,
112 E. Laurel Dr.
Janis & Rusty Rogers
June 22, 2012
Heaven just received another angel, Zelma.
Mary Lou Sweetapple
June 21, 2012
Zelma can no longer physically be taken away from me, now she will always be by side, while I am swimming, playing water polo, running, laughing at the grandbaby, she is always there. Krimilda and I will always have a special place in our hearts. We love and miss her
Krimilda Duffy
June 21, 2012
Zelma was the sweetest person we have ever met. She always had kind words for everyone. Her smile was a breath of sunshine. We will never, ever forget her. She came back home to us. Krimilda & Mary Lou
Fae and Bob Ensslin
June 21, 2012
To Ruth, Barbara, Ray and Pat -
We'll always remember Zelma for her open heart and loving smile.
We're thinking of you at this time.
love from Fae and Bob Ensslin
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IN THE CARE OF