Ena M. Hoskins

Ena M. Hoskins passed away peacefully on March 12, 2024 at Forest Springs Health Campus in Louisville, Ky. She was 99 years old. She was surrounded by her loving family.

Ena was born on Oct. 3, 1924 of the late John and Charlotte Woodward in Creeting St Mary, England.

After World War II broke out, she began her career as a telephone operator with the local Ipswich Telephone Exchange. It was through this job that she met her future husband, Sgt. Richard Hoskins, a radio operator with the United States Army Air Forces based at Rattlesden airfield. They were married on Dec. 22, 1945, at St Mary the Virgin’s Church in Stonham Parva, England.

After her marriage, Ena immigrated to Binghamton, N.Y., to live with her in-laws, whom she had never met, while Richard stayed behind as a member of the U.S. Army’s extraction team, assisting in the withdrawal of troops from the war. Ena spent the next 10 years as a homemaker, raising the first two of their children.

The family was relocated to Greencastle in 1953 with the opening of the new IBM plant. This is where they bought their first and only house on Arlington Street, where Ena would spend the next 67 years. Greencastle is where her third child was born.

Once all her children were of school age, Ena returned to the telephone business as an operator with GTE in Greencastle. There she spent the next 20 years working her way up through various management roles. Shortly after GTE closed the Greencastle office, Ena retired and began traveling across the country with her husband in their motorhome.

Ena became a U.S. citizen on June 2, 1970. She enjoyed gardening, crossword puzzles, watching tennis and loving her dogs. She was a member of St Mary the Virgin’s Church in Stonham Parva and later St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Greencastle.

Ena was preceded in death by her parents; her sister, Daphne; her husband, Richard; and eldest son Gary.

Surviving her are her daughter, Sheila; son John; seven grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; nine great-great-grandchildren; along with several nieces and nephews.

Ena is to be entombed in Forest Hill Cemetery in Greencastle next to her husband. There will not be a service.