Stella Veronica Noga (née Valigore)

Stella Veronica Noga (née Valigore), of Centerville and formerly Grafton, Ohio, passed from the arms of her children into the hands of God at the age of 99 on May 7, 2025.

Born on July 21, 1925 to Polish immigrant parents, Stella grew up in a mountain home on a small farm near Lemont Furnace, PA., a poor coal mining town, during the Great Depression. Although her family had little and endured many hardships, what Stella always remembered most from her childhood was her home filled with faith, love, laughter, and most of all, music. With a hand-me-down guitar and record player, Stella and her sisters taught themselves to play and sing all the classic country songs, and how to yodel with the best of them!

At the age of 15, Stella and her sister Frances set out into the world in search of jobs to send money back to their family. They made the journey to Long Island, NY, where Stella found work as a live-in nanny and assistant for a dentist and his family. In her later years, she fondly recalled this time as her "finishing school," and she was grateful for the way this family took her into their home and patiently taught her skills that would help her not only in this role but in her life to come.

After Stella returned home to her family, the end of WWII had brought a handsome young sailor, Joe Noga, to the home next door, and they soon married November 30th, 1946. They relocated to Ohio to begin their new life together, where Stella built a home filled with faith, love, laughter, and of course, music.

She endured hardships, the most trying of all the death of her eldest child Shirley Ann at the age of 3. But despite the pain that never fully heals in the heart of a mother for a child lost too young, Stella welcomed four more children Cynthia, Paul, Timothy, and Kathleen into the world. She instilled in them her love of music and nurtured them with a warmth and love they would carry with them all their lives.

Stella and Joe volunteered at their church, played bingo and bowled with their friends. They lit up the dance floor with jitterbugs, polkas and obereks.

Stella faced another great loss when Joe suffered a stroke, leaving him with significant handicaps. But with her signature strength, Stella did not linger on what was lost but on what she still had, visiting her husband at the nursing home every day. Through it all she cared for him, comforted him, laughed with him, and sang as he played pitch perfect harmonica for her. Through gaps in his memory, Joe proclaimed his love for her all over again, when the return of her repaired wedding ring turned into a renewed proposal to the love of his life.

After Joe's passing, Stella moved to Centerville to be closer to her grown children. She celebrated their joys and comforted them in their challenges, then watched with pride as they raised their own children. She found peace walking the halls of Saint Leonard's to the chapel, where she prayed the rosary regularly, mixed with prayers for her friends and family. And even in the end, as Alzheimer's and blindness stole so much from her, it could not steal her greatest loves: for God, for her family, and for music. In her final days, as she drifted into a deeper and deeper sleep, she would still awaken singing, filling the halls one last time with her songs.

Those songs now fill the halls of Heaven, but they will echo forever in the hearts of her family on Earth, including her sister Agnes Mulick; children Cynthia Gray (Bob), Paul Noga, Timothy Noga (Chris) and Kathleen Nunlist (Ray); her grandchildren Raechel Wardlow, Allyson Michal (Josh), Audrey Gray, Shirley Anne Nunlist, and Caitlin Noga; and great grandchildren Madison and Grant Wardlow, and Clark Michal. Among those attending her concert in heaven are her father and mother Ludwig and Antonette Waligora, husband Joseph Noga, daughter Shirley Ann, her brother Frank Valigore, and her sisters Helen Habrat, Frances Elsener, and Viola Savage.

Service to be held at St. Leonard Chapel, 8100 Clyo Rd., Centerville, OH 45458 on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 at 11:00 a.m. Followed by a luncheon for all who can attend at Station House Restaurant, also on the St. Leonard campus.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Alzheimer’s Association. https://www.alz.org/