Penelope Alice Thresher

Penelope Alice DeNure Thresher, a longtime volunteer involved in the establishment of Steppingstone Museum in Havre de Grace, died Friday (April 16) in Churchville. She was 81.

Mrs. Thresher lived nearly a half-century in Harford County, residing at her "Rock Bottom" home, which she and her late husband Richard G. Thresher Sr. built in Churchville.

She was active in Christian missions work and taught Sunday School and vacation Bible school at local churches, most recently at New Covenant Presbyterian Church in Abingdon.

As plans were made to relocate the nascent Steppingstone museum to Susquehanna State Park in 1976, Mrs. Thresher helped to get the farm history programs operating and was a tireless volunteer, particularly in the kitchen crafts and cooking demonstrations. Countless schoolchildren and adult visitors learned the skills of late 19th century wood-stove cookery from her enthusiastic demonstrations.

She was an avid naturalist with a surprising encyclopedic knowledge of botany and birds, and delighted in frequent visits to area parks and nature centers. Trees were a particular interest for her.

She enjoyed fishing for many years, and took pleasure in teaching her children and grandchildren how to properly bait a hook. She relished time with her children and grandchildren, and her home was the center of frequent family celebrations.

Ever active in church work, Mrs. Thresher personally supported a number of missionaries throughout the world and looked forward to their home visits when she could entertain them at her house and hear of their experiences. Through her husband's job as an engineer at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, she similarly served as a frequent hostess in her home to visiting foreign military officers.

But she was not just an armchair foreign traveler, enjoying trips to most continents of the world with her husband.

She was born Dec. 18, 1928, in Hackensack, N.J., daughter of the late Milton William DeNure and Evelyn Blanche Hubschmitt. She received her bachelor's degree from Adelphi University (Garden City, N.Y.) and her elementary teacher training from Mills School in New York City.

She taught school in Dolgeville, N.Y., where she met Mr. Thresher. They were married in 1952, and he died in 1998.

Mrs. Thresher was in past years active in the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Women's Christian Temperance Union.

She is survived by two sons, Col. (ret.) Richard G. Thresher Jr., of Cecilia, Ky., and Robert J. Thresher, of Aberdeen, Md.; three daughters, Margaret T. Burns, of Phoenix, Md., Penelope T. Beddow, of Ft. Wayne, Ind., and Martha T. Martin, of Roanoke, Ind.; six brothers, Peter, Philip, Woody, Leonard, Donny, and Bobby DeNure; two sisters, Phyllis Johnson and Barbara Skorupa; 15 grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Steppingstone Museum, 461 Quaker Bottom Rd., Havre de Grace, MD 21078.