Obituary of Ethel H. Palmer

PALMER, ETHEL Ham (“Peggy”) died peacefully at home on September 21, 2016 at the age of 100. Born to Charles and Ethel Ham in Flatbush, Brooklyn, she had two brothers, Charles and Ralph, who both predeceased her. Her husband, Dwight O. Palmer, Jr., predeceased her in 1987. She is survived by her nieces, Susan and Carolyn. Peggy graduated from Jamaica High School in 1933. A 1937 graduate of Smith College with a degree in Sociology, Peggy then attended the Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School. As a legal secretary at Western Union, she met her late husband, a public relations executive, and married in 1951. They first resided in Ridgewood, NJ, and then moved to Wyckoff, NJ, in 1954. Peggy was a member of the West Side Presbyterian Church, the Wyckoff Women’s Club, the Valley Hospital Auxiliary and volunteered for The Seeing Eye, training eight puppies. Peggy loved playing bridge with her friends and UpWords with her nieces. The family will have a Memorial Service on Saturday, November 12, 2016 at 2pm at the West Side Presbyterian Church, 6 South Monroe Street, Ridgewood, NJ. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in Peggy’s name to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, P.O. Box 27106, NY, NY 10087, The Salvation Army, 380 S. Van Brunt St., Englewood, NJ 07631, The Seeing Eye, P.O. Box 375, Morristown, NJ 07963, Wyckoff Volunteer Ambulance Corps, P.O. Box 214, Wyckoff, NJ or the Midland Park Public Library, 250 Godwin Ave., Midland Park, NJ 07432. Arrangements were handled by Vander Plaat Funeral Home, (vpfh.com), 257 Godwin Ave., Wyckoff, NJ 07481.