Florence Bareford McGuckin, passed away on February 13, 2012, of natural causes at the age of 98.

She was the daughter of the late John P. Bareford and Ethel Mower Bareford and was the wife of the late Lambert A. McGuckin.

Florence was a graduate of Downingtown High School and Drexel University. She began her working career at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital Surgical Outpatient Department where she worked as a secretary for six years. The work was very interesting and the doctors and patients she worked with provided her many funny stories she loved to share with her family. Although she really enjoyed her job at the hospital she took a position at the Shipley School in Bryn Mawr for a much larger salary. Her three years there were interesting and fun and she hated to leave but an illness and operation forced her to find work close to home. She took a position at the Downingtown National Bank until her health improved two years later. Florence then decided to help the war effort and joined the Navy as a WAVE. After basic training, Florence went to San Padro, California to serve her country. When her mother died, she went home to Downingtown for the funeral and on the train trip back to California she met her handsome soldier named Lambert. He was on his way to California to be shipped to Japan and he informed her that he was going to marry her. Luckily the war ended and they were married and honorably discharged from the service. They moved to Norwalk, Ohio for a short time then back to Downingtown to make their permanent home and so Florence could take care of her widowed father. Florence then took a job at Texas Eastern in Eagle, for four years while her husband went to school to be a machinist. When Lambert and Howard Lewis Pyle started McGuckin and Pyle Machine Shop, Florence quit her job at Texas Eastern and did the bookwork for the new business. Florence was active in the American Red Cross and helped with many bloodmobiles throughout the country. She was honored and proud to receive the Clara Barton Award for her work with the Red Cross during the blizzard of 1958. Florence stayed at the Methodist Church for days during the storm to help people who were without shelter or food because of the heavy snow. She was also a member of the Women's Club of Downingtown and taught adult Sunday school for many years at the Downingtown Methodist Church. She also served as the organist at the church and enjoyed playing the organ at many weddings in the area. As if that wasn't enough to do, she was also involved with the Girl Scouts and was the cookie chairman for many years. Her training as a camp counselor at Camp Innabah as a teenager really helped with her Girl Scout duties and organizing the hundreds of boxes of cookies in her living room every year.

Florence is survived by her son John McGuckin and his wife Kristin of Downingtown and her daughter Mina Mowrer of Guthriesville with whom she lived; her grandsons Andrew Mowrer and his wife Beverly of Coatesville and Joshua McGuckin of Broomfield, Colorado; her granddaughters Amy Kabatt and her husband Daniel of Glenmoore and Megan McGuckin of Washington, D.C. Florence was also lucky and very happy to have a great-granddaughter Alia Kabatt of Glenmoore whom she adored. She will also be missed by her sister Lillian Simmons of Wilmington, Delaware, two nieces and two nephews.

At the request of the family, services and interment are private.

Published in The Daily Local on February 15, 2012