Ethel T. Mcghee
May 25, 1932 — June 29, 2024
On Saturday evening, June 29, 2024, Ethel Toth McGhee, at age 92, left our lives, in which she played a huge and loving part.
Ethel was born in the attic apartment above her parents’ grocery store in Taylor Township, Pennsylvania on May 25, 1932, the day after her mother’s birthday. So it was that she was named after her mother and bestowed the moniker of “Junior” by her parents and two older brothers, Bill and Charles, well into middle age. The family store was relocated and became a community hub. The Toth Family also relocated up the hill to a beautiful pre-Civil War brownstone on the outskirts of Brownsville. This is where she, Bill and Chuck grew up. Ethel attended University of Pittsburgh and Wooster College in Ohio, following her interest in psychology, anthropology and education.
After a brief marriage, she raised her three young children on her own. By the early 1970’s, she remarried, bringing a remarkable man, Harley McGhee, and his two wonderful daughters, Kathi and Shari, into the family. After many happy years of love and adventure, Harley passed away in 2013.
Ethel McGhee lived a life giving to others, teaching hundreds and hundreds of children. Her first teaching job was as a kindergarten teacher followed by a career in elementary education at Plumosa Elementary in Delray Beach, Florida, where she taught for over 35 years, retiring in 1991.
Her unbending Presbyterian faith inspired 1,000’s of hours of volunteer work, their home often full of used books for soldiers overseas, stacks of decorated shoe boxes filled with Christmas goodies for less fortunate children around the world and clean rags being rolled as bandages to be shipped to corners of our war-torn world. Ethel never stopped doing the work of angels but also managed to travel the world and remain an ace card player, board game enthusiast and trophy-winning bowler (well into her 80’S!). And all with a contagious laugh and love in her heart.
Family was everything to Ethel. And we intend to carry on, putting up with each other, making “Hunky” Christmas cookies (a generations old family tradition) and knowing that there is nothing that can steal the remarkable memories she has given us over her amazing 92 years.
Ethel is survived by her children, Bill Kern, Bob Kern and Kim Hellenberg; her stepdaughters, Kathi McGhee Gundlach (Paul B. Gundlach) and Shari McGhee (Garland Stevens); her grandchildren, Paul W. Gundlach, Katie Gundlach, Jonathan Warburton and Brendan Brown; her sister-in-law , Pat Toth (Bill Toth) and her nieces and nephews, Tracy Toth, Melissa Toth and Dawn Toth Klavon, children of Bill and Pat Toth; Lydia Toth, Tim Toth (Jane Holston) and Carolyn Toth, children of Charles and Jean Toth; and a raft of great nieces and their families.
In closing, if you were fortunate enough to share a meal, a classroom, a card game, a travel adventure, or even a glass of iced tea with Ethel Toth McGhee, you were in the company of timid grace and a recipient of her endlessly kind heart and intrepid optimism.
The funeral service is July 20, 2024 at 1 pm and is being held at:
First Presbyterian Church of Boynton Beach
235 S.W. 6th Avenue
Boynton Beach, Florida 33435
Interment follows at 3 p.m. at:
Boynton Beach Memorial Park and Mausoleum
1611 S. Seacrest Boulevard
Boynton Beach, Florida 33435
Donations may be made to:
First Presbyterian Church of Boynton Beach
Plumosa School of the Arts
2501 Seacrest Blvd.
Delray Beach, Florida 33444
Ethel was born in the attic apartment above her parents’ grocery store in Taylor Township, Pennsylvania on May 25, 1932, the day after her mother’s birthday. So it was that she was named after her mother and bestowed the moniker of “Junior” by her parents and two older brothers, Bill and Charles, well into middle age. The family store was relocated and became a community hub. The Toth Family also relocated up the hill to a beautiful pre-Civil War brownstone on the outskirts of Brownsville. This is where she, Bill and Chuck grew up. Ethel attended University of Pittsburgh and Wooster College in Ohio, following her interest in psychology, anthropology and education.
After a brief marriage, she raised her three young children on her own. By the early 1970’s, she remarried, bringing a remarkable man, Harley McGhee, and his two wonderful daughters, Kathi and Shari, into the family. After many happy years of love and adventure, Harley passed away in 2013.
Ethel McGhee lived a life giving to others, teaching hundreds and hundreds of children. Her first teaching job was as a kindergarten teacher followed by a career in elementary education at Plumosa Elementary in Delray Beach, Florida, where she taught for over 35 years, retiring in 1991.
Her unbending Presbyterian faith inspired 1,000’s of hours of volunteer work, their home often full of used books for soldiers overseas, stacks of decorated shoe boxes filled with Christmas goodies for less fortunate children around the world and clean rags being rolled as bandages to be shipped to corners of our war-torn world. Ethel never stopped doing the work of angels but also managed to travel the world and remain an ace card player, board game enthusiast and trophy-winning bowler (well into her 80’S!). And all with a contagious laugh and love in her heart.
Family was everything to Ethel. And we intend to carry on, putting up with each other, making “Hunky” Christmas cookies (a generations old family tradition) and knowing that there is nothing that can steal the remarkable memories she has given us over her amazing 92 years.
Ethel is survived by her children, Bill Kern, Bob Kern and Kim Hellenberg; her stepdaughters, Kathi McGhee Gundlach (Paul B. Gundlach) and Shari McGhee (Garland Stevens); her grandchildren, Paul W. Gundlach, Katie Gundlach, Jonathan Warburton and Brendan Brown; her sister-in-law , Pat Toth (Bill Toth) and her nieces and nephews, Tracy Toth, Melissa Toth and Dawn Toth Klavon, children of Bill and Pat Toth; Lydia Toth, Tim Toth (Jane Holston) and Carolyn Toth, children of Charles and Jean Toth; and a raft of great nieces and their families.
In closing, if you were fortunate enough to share a meal, a classroom, a card game, a travel adventure, or even a glass of iced tea with Ethel Toth McGhee, you were in the company of timid grace and a recipient of her endlessly kind heart and intrepid optimism.
The funeral service is July 20, 2024 at 1 pm and is being held at:
First Presbyterian Church of Boynton Beach
235 S.W. 6th Avenue
Boynton Beach, Florida 33435
Interment follows at 3 p.m. at:
Boynton Beach Memorial Park and Mausoleum
1611 S. Seacrest Boulevard
Boynton Beach, Florida 33435
Donations may be made to:
First Presbyterian Church of Boynton Beach
Plumosa School of the Arts
2501 Seacrest Blvd.
Delray Beach, Florida 33444
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