Obituary – Sara Mae (Probst) Eckel
Sara Mae (Probst) Eckel, formerly of North Bend and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Sebring, Florida, passed away on June 30, 2023, in Sterling, Virginia. She was an amazing 105.
She was born August 29, 1917, at North Bend to Coryell and Leda (Rudolph) Probst. She attended North Bend and Farwell elementary schools and graduated from Renovo High School in 1935. After high school she worked as a salesclerk for the J.J. Newberry 5 and 10. She was Lutheran by faith.
Mrs. Eckel was a past Matron of two Order of Eastern Star chapters, Renovo and Orient (Wilkinsburg, PA), and a past Mother Advisor for Renovo Assembly Order of Rainbow for Girls. Her interests were crossword puzzles, cross-stitch embroidery, traveling, designing and sewing clothing, playing 500 and euchre, and ballroom and square dancing.
On January 11, 1939, she married her high school sweetheart, Ammon E. Eckel, in Zion’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Renovo. It was a love affair that lasted 71 years. Ammon passed away January 27, 2010, in Sebring, Florida, and Sara Mae then moved to Sterling, Virginia, to be near her family. Beside her parents and husband, she was preceded in death by an infant brother, Coryell Robert Probst, and her son-in-law, Alfred Joseph Velt. She is survived by her daughter, Sally Lee (Eckel) Velt, three grandchildren, Tanya Gossett, Gregory (Christina) Velt, and Geoffrey (Jill) Velt, grandson-in-law K. Dean Gossett, and four great-grandchildren, Aidan and Alfred (AJ) Gossett, Hannah and Olivia Velt, all of Virginia.
Arrangements are with Money & King Funeral Home in Vienna, Virginia. A graveside service is being planned for later this year.
Donations in Sara Mae’s honor may be made to the Zion’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1100 Huron Avenue, Renovo, PA, 17764 or the North Bend United Methodist Church, 41 Main St, North Bend, PA 17760.
