Francine H. (Korreis) Wurch

Francine Helen Wurch, 90, of Clifton New Jersey, passed away Thursday, August 3, 2023, at Saint Joseph’s Medical Center in Paterson, New Jersey.  Francine was surrounded by loving family members at the time of her passing. 

Francine was born on December 16, 1932, and raised in Passaic, New Jersey from hard working immigrant parents, William Peter and Theresa Korreis.   She was the eldest of two children and was educated in the Passaic County school system.  Francine professed her life to Christ and the church at an early age and became a faithful member of Saint Andrew the Apostle Church.   Francine used her many gifts and talents to serve family, friends, and the community.  Some of which included gardening, painting, knitting, and cooking as well as interior design. She always enjoyed helping others. Francine loved reading the Bible, praying for and with others, spending time with family, laughing, and always wearing a smile on her face. She was a loving, caring person, devoted wife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, and friend. Always thinking of others first. To know her was to love her.  After her marriage on June 1, 1957, Francine resided in the Athenia section of Clifton for nearly 65 years with her husband, Edgar Louis Wurch where they were blessed to raise their beautiful family of five children.  Francine was loving mother to three girls, Terriann, Amy and Marianne and 2 boys, William and Edward.  Her husband Edgar is predeceased. 

The Athenia section of Clifton where their handsome white colonial home sat was once home to abundant New Jersey farmland making the soil beneath their home rich in fertile topsoil.  It was from this perfect setting where Francine developed deep roots in a lifelong passion and love of gardening. 

Francine not only grew her beautiful family here in Clifton but also grew fields of rhubarb and strawberries, an abundant collection of flowering garden roses, oversized dogwood trees, fragrant flowering lilacs and flowering tulip magnolia trees, some stretching over 50 feet in height.  These trees stand today as a reminder of Francine’s gardening legacy.  Francine’s love of gardening and garden design earned her the honor of city-wide recognition as Francine was the recipient of The City of Clifton’s prestigious Beautification Award. 

Francine loved to nurture and bring out the very best in her award-winning gardens but also in her family and lifelong friends.  If you knew Francine, you knew she loved to make you the champion, always putting you first, ahead of herself.  Francine was a lifelong warrior for the underprivileged and downtrodden as hosting foster children for multiple extended holiday stays at her home was commonplace. 

Some would say, along with her husband Edgar, that Francine saved countless lives through her lifelong commitment and dedication to the Right to Life campaign.  Each January, Edgar and Francine would organize and sponsor a Right to Life bus trip to Washington DC out of Saint Andrew the Apostle Church in Clifton where they both were lifelong dedicated parishioners as well as Eucharistic Ministers.

Francine was also committed to other organizations close to her heart and home: Francine is the recipient of the distinguished service award at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Passaic as resident Eucharistic minister for 25 years. 

No award could outshine Francine’s most enduring commitment and dedication which was to her loving husband Edgar of 58 years – a World War II veteran and recipient of two Purple Heart medals.  Their relationship was a testament to the power of love, sacrifice, commitment and service, always setting a positive example for all of us to learn and grow. 

Francine leaves to cherish her loving memory, her brother William; her children, Terriann, Amy, Marianne, William and Edward; seven grandchildren, Danielle, Matthew, Christopher, Shane, Chelsea, Emma and Sullivan; 11 great grandchildren, Olivia, Mason, Madison, Payton, Kaitlyn, Preston, Chloe, Ethan, Logan, Monroe, and Elliot, and a host of nieces and nephews, cousins and friends. She will be most greatly missed by every life she touched.

A Memorial Mass will be celebrated on Wednesday August 16th at 10:30am at St. Andrew the Apostle RC Church, 400 Mt. Prospect Avenue, Clifton with a repast to immediately follow at the Valley Regency, 1129 Valley Road, Clifton.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Francine H. (Korreis) Wurch, please visit our floral store.