Obituary of Anna Gertrude Costello

Anna Gertrude Shepard Costello February 27, 1924-August 20, 2016 Anna went to meet the Lord peacefully on August 20, 2016 at the age of 92. Anna was born in Geneva, New York to George Shepard and Ruth Stroup Shepard. She grew up on her parents’ farm and was the eldest of 5 children with 3 brothers and 1 sister. As a youth, she participated in the 4H Club, attended Sunday school, church, and was a high school graduate. Anna married George Costello and they had 5 children; Diane, Michael, Pamela, Denise, and Brian. Anna and George had 11 grandchildren, 24 great grandchildren, and 7 great great grandchildren. She loved having her grandchildren come and visit and when they could come and spend extended time with her, she always enjoyed every moment of it. She had a great love for all of her family. Family was especially important to her. In 1964, they moved to Banning, California. Anna and George were married over 59 1/2 years, before George’s passing. George worked for New York Bell Telephone while living in upstate New York and then transferred to Pacific Bell Telephone in California. Anna opened her own cleaning business and was in business for over 15 years before she retired. Anna was very involved with the United Methodist Church doing the Lord’s work, some of which included teaching Sunday school, working in the nursery, children’s church, was nursery coordinator, went on a mission trip to South Dakota with her husband, daughter, two granddaughters, and she made choir robes for the children’s choir. She enjoyed and loved working with children and seeing them grow in the Lord. Anna was very much involved with the boy scouts, girl scouts, and little league baseball. She served on the Boy Scout Council in Riverside. Being very social and energetic, Anna loved bowling and participated on bowling teams. She loved hiking and hiked up to the top of Mt. San Jacinto as well as the top of the San Gorgonio Mountain. Traveling was another of her favorite things to do and she would tent camp most of the time as she was traveling around the U.S.A. visiting every state including Alaska and Hawaii. She even traveled to Europe to watch her granddaughters in a World Baton Twirling Championship. While she was there, she visited France and Italy. On several occasions she and George would take the grandchildren with them on their travels in order to expand their knowledge of what a great and wonderful country the United States was. Anna loved gardening, growing vegetables and fruits which she would preserve by canning. She loved to cook, bake, make candy, and make a large amount of special baked goods which she would take to many people during the holidays. Anna was a wonderful seamstress and made her own clothes, her children’s clothes as well the grandchildren’s clothes. She taught her grandchildren, sewing, crafts, games, puzzles, cooking, baking and cleaning. Music was a major part of Anna’s life. She enjoyed listening to Christian, Country, Polka, Big Band and Semi-Classical music. She also learned to play the guitar, line dance and attend Light Operetta plays. Anna cared, loved, and enjoyed being with and socializing with people. She had so many friends and never seemed to meet a stranger. Anna saw many things in her life time from horse and buggy to space shuttle landings. She was preceded in death by her mother and father, her four siblings; George, Martha, Roy, and Arthur, husband George Costello, and one daughter Diane Ruth Joss.