Willie Bell 'Auntie' Stallworth, 99

LOOKING AT the heavily populated area around Glenolden, Delaware County, today, it's hard to imagine that it was once so undeveloped that men hunted in the woods and it was common to find chickens, ducks and goats in back yards where residents grew vegetables.

That was the Glenolden in which Willie Bell McNear grew up. The women and children went into the woods and picked berries and other fruit; the men stalked the woods for wily rabbits and pheasants.

The girls would get new dresses at Christmas, which they wore to church and passed down to the younger ones when they outgrew them. The boys would get a sled or wagon, which they used to make a nickel or dime carrying groceries for neighbors.

William Howard Taft was president when Willie Bell was born in Eastman, Ga., to Peter and Ludel Rogers McNear, the second of their six children.

Willie Bell, a welder who helped build ships for the war effort during World War II, a devoted churchwoman and animal lover, died June 13. She was 99 and lived in Southwest Philadelphia.

She became Willie Bell McNear Stallworth after her marriage to the late Richard Stallworth, whom she met in 1950, and they moved to Southwest Philadelphia. But she was always known in the neighborhood as "Auntie."

Willie Bell had many memories of her childhood. She remembered how she worked different jobs as a child, earning $1.15 a day. She also remembered that their home had no electricity, and every evening a man would come along with a pole and light the gas streetlamps.

Willie Bell's mother died in childbirth in 1918 during the flu epidemic.

After moving to Philadelphia, Willie Bell attended public schools and graduated from West Philadelphia High School.

She was always active and loved to cook, sew and dance. After graduation, she joined a dance troupe that performed in New York and other cities. Her first husband, James Thomas, was her dance partner on the road. A couple of years later, he was robbed and slain in New York City.

Returning to Philadelphia, Willie Bell worked as a welder at the Naval Shipyard and later for the Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., in Chester.

During the war, she married James Palmer, a soldier who was shipped overseas and never returned.

After her marriage to James Stallworth, they became active members of the Union Baptist Church under James E. Kirkland. When Kirkland founded Philadelphia Baptist Church in 1968, she and her husband followed him there.

She and her husband raised a sister's son, Jimmy. Her husband died in 1991.

In the mid-1960s, Auntie got the idea that the neighborhood youngsters needed some Bible education and she began teaching a class at her home. Local schools donated chairs for her basement, and she served refreshments to her students. The kids would help her set up and clean up.

She was a devoted member of the ASPCA and enjoyed raising and training dogs. She also liked to raise fish and shortly before her death had four fish tanks in her home.

Her nephew, George Terrell, who cared for her for more than 25 years, said that when you asked her how she was doing, she would reply, "I'm still holding on."

In fact, she was still mentally sharp until she had a stroke on June 9. Just the day before, she and George were listening to the Phillies-Marlins game on the radio and she was cheering, "Go Phillies!"

"She had too much energy for me," George said. "She would get up early in the morning just to sweep the street."

She is survived by nephews and nieces.

Services: 10 a.m. tomorrow at Sayers Memorial United Methodist Church, 61st and Catharine streets. Friends may call at 9 a.m.

Burial will be at Fernwood Cemetery.