Ernestine Wiese
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Ernestine Wiese, aged 95, passed away peacefully on Thursday March 18, 2021 in her apartment at Buffalo Crossings, 3890 Woodridge Drive, The Villages, Florida. She was born Ernestine Park in a small rural house in FourMile, Kentucky, an unincorporated community close to the small town of Pineville, located in Bell County, Kentucky. Her parents were Richard Lelon Park and Nola Park, formerly Nola Morton. Ernestine was a 1943 graduate of Pineville High School in Bell County and graduated from Eastern Kentucky State Teachers College, which in 1966, was officially renamed Eastern Kentucky University. She received her Bachelor of Science Degree with a concentration in Chemistry in 1947.
Ernestine Weise worked a long career in chemistry at the DuPont chemical Company, formally E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, but popularly known simply as DuPont. She worked as a chemist in the Cleveland Ohio plant for 32 years. Ernestine worked as a Quality Control chemist, ascending to the position of Plant Quality Control Department supervisor for about 6 years prior to her retirement from DuPont in 1979. She was highly respected by her colleagues, making many friends with whom to enjoy bowling, golfing, and both domestic as well as international recreational travel together.
In her younger years, Ernestine was an avid reader, constantly going between history, science, and novels. She was a strong academic, finishing as valedictorian of her Pineville High graduating class. Ernestine also had a heart of compassion - in those difficult times of the 1930s, when her best friend's family was undergoing severe financial hardships, Ernestine convinced her parents to take her friend into their home, and her best friend lived with the Park family for several years while both were in middle/high school. Ernestine's generous nature and heart of compassion were key virtues she retained throughout her life. Ernestine was a loving aunt, hosting visits in the summers for her nephew, young Richard Park from Kentucky, and sharing many family events with her local Cleveland nephews and nieces, David, Stephen, and Amy, along with sharing family experiences with all her nephews and nieces dispersed across Kentucky, Ohio, and Texas. She leaves a legacy of a generous and gracious love of family, and extension to close friends of the status of family.
In 1948 she married Russell Perry, a World War II veteran awarded the Purple Heart for combat in Europe, who she met in Cleveland, Ohio and they were married for 26 years before his life was taken prematurely by cancer in 1974. Ernestine retired shortly afterward in 1979 and enjoyed her friends and family in retirement, remaining in Cleveland. On November 12, 1983, she married Ray Wiese, a Ford Motor Company retiree, and they enjoyed a 6-year span of wintering in Peoria, Arizona and summering in Cleveland, Ohio, before finally settling in Arizona. Ernestine and Ray later decided that Florida was the state that both liked best, so in 2000 they decided to make Florida their permanent home. Ray Wiese passed away in 2001 and Ernestine continued an active retirement, choosing to remain in Florida for the rest of her life.
In addition to her two husbands, Ernestine was preceded in death by her parents, Richard and Nola Park, her eldest brother James Lowell Park and his son Dr. Richard Franklin Park, her youngest brother Richard Lelon Park, Jr. and she is survived by her second eldest brother Thomas Edwin Park living in Mount Dora Florida. She is also survived by loving nephews and nieces David Gary Park (and wife Linda), Stephen Lynn Park (and wife Martha), Amy Park Simoes (and husband Dorival Simoes), John Richard Park (and wife Lea Clay), James Michael Park (and wife Rebecca DeAtley), Susan Park Sorensen (and husband Kelly Bockius), William David Park (and wife Amanda McRitchie), Pamela Gayle Park and Kevin Wilson Park. There will be a Celebration of Ernestine's life at the Immanuel Baptist Church located at 8015 SE 180th St. Oxford, Florida on May 28, 2021 at 2:00 PM. In lieu of flowers, please remember the Immanuel Baptist Church, or the Humane Society in Sumter County, or the Mount Dora Christian Academy or Journey's End Animal Sanctuary in Deland.