Myrna McCullough obituary

Myrna Louise McCullough, of Lake City and Minnetonka, Minn., passed away peacefully on August 11, 2023. Myrna was born on June 26, 1938 in New Kensington, Pa.
She graduated from Edinboro University with a teaching degree. After staying home to raise her two young sons, she moved to Minnesota and taught first and third grade at Annunciation School in south Minneapolis. Her students remember her as creative and whimsical. Always dedicated, she often bought classroom supplies with her own money and brought tests home for her children to help grade after dinner. After many years of teaching, she took jobs closer to home as a receptionist at Opportunity Partners and in customer relations at a bank.
She and her husband Don retired to their lake home in Lake City in 1997, where she cultivated a beautiful garden and cuddled her impish rescue dog, Desi. Her last job was working part time at Curves in Lake City. She liked playing the piano, reading, crossword puzzles, photography, gardening, scrapbooking and Broadway musicals - but most of all, she loved interacting with other people. She always found time to remember a birthday - often with a “guess who?” mystery card or gift. She would be the one to pay for groceries if someone in her checkout line was short on cash. She would leave huge tips, sometimes more than the actual check. Curious and friendly, she once found herself on an Amtrak train on the way to New York City that broke down in the middle of the woods in Pennsylvania. She spent that time going up and down the aisles talking to the other sweaty, irritated passengers. She loved adventures - she biked coast to coast on a tandem with her husband - Oceanside, Calif. all the way to St. Simons Island, Ga.
Fiercely loyal, she always remembered her friends and family until age took its toll. She visited her mother in Pittsburgh once or twice a year until her mother passed away at nearly 97 years of age. For her philosophy, please refer to Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven...” She often chose that portion when she read at church, now we’ll have to remember it for her.
Myrna was preceded in death by her mother Sophia (Kunka) Kirchner, father Alex Kirchner Jr. and brother Ralph Kirchner. She is survived by husband Donald, sons Jeffrey and Brian, cousins Lynn Buczyinski, Diane Donavan, Jerry Osele, Mark Osele, Stan Brudney Jr, Dennis Brudney and by many friends. Myrna will be interred in the family plot near Cheswick, Pa. To honor her memory, please consider a donation to your favorite veteran’s organization, to an animal rescue organization or to the humane society. Or, you can just do what she always did - be kind and generous to everyone you meet, as there are eternal consequences for everything we do.