Georgine A. Tidmore

Georgine Tidmore, 84, of Pottsville, for years prominent in Schuylkill County radio, died Friday at Schuylkill Medical Center East “Good Sam”. After a 6 ½ year battle with ovarian cancer. A co-owner and the retired General Manager of Pottsville Broadcasting Company (WPPA / T-102 Radio), Pottsville. Born January 8, 1929 in Shenandoah, she was the daughter of the late Nellie and Joseph Yanavage. After graduating from J.W. Cooper High School in 1946, she attended Penn State Schuylkill and McCann’s School of Business. She also earned certification as a radio engineer first class, the Federal Communication Commission’s highest rating available in that category. Her interest in radio began as a child when she became an avid listener of “The Shadow”, “The Green Hornet”, “Dinah Shore”, “Make-Believe Ballroom”, and other leading shows of the era. To her mother’s dismay, she tuned into them even while she was doing her homework, insisting that they helped her focus. In 1950, she began working at Pottsville Broadcasting, where she conducted a popular music show, wrote commercials, and kept a daily log of all the programs. In later years, attending radio-related events across the country gave her the opportunity to meet, and in some cases interview, a number of celebrities, including Joan Crawford, Arlene Dahl, astronaut Frank Bohrman, Dick Clark, Stan Kenton, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who likes to fish in our PA waters, Sinatra, the music legend kissed her on the cheek. When she and her husband, the late A.V. Tidmore, founder of Pottsville Broadcasting Company, toured South America with the U.S. Society of Educators and Commentators, they had personal meetings with the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Uruguay, as well as most of the continents and other countries. Her late husband not only pioneered radio in Schuylkill County, he also was a trailblazer in area aviation. Georgine shared in his enthusiasm for flying by earning a private pilot’s license. She passed the flight test in Florida on the first try, but on the way back from Vero Beach to her home base, New Smyrna Beach, the winds were so strong that trucks were passing her on the highway. She had to make an emergency landing and call her husband to pick her up. It was, she said, her most memorable solo flight. She frequently commuted to Florida by she and her husband piloting the couple’s plane during the years she managed WSBB, their station in New Smyrna Beach. A woman of many interests and abilities, she excelled in dancing, water skiing, ice skating, gourmet cooking and bowling. She was also a former member and, in several instances, the president of a number of clubs and organizations, including Business and Professional Women’s Club, Shenandoah; Lithuanian Women’s Club of Schuylkill County, and, in Pottsville, Torray, Rotary Club, YWCA, Pottsville Hospital Auxiliary, and Pottsville Garden Club. Former social memberships include Schuylkill Country Club and the Pottsville Club. As a participant in a Rotary exchange program, she hosted a total of 12 foreign students, each for one year. Survivors include her son, Argie Tidmore, and his wife Shelia Monaghan, and two granddaughters, Haley and Zoe Tidmore, Pottsville, whom she always described as the joys of her life; a sister, Anna Martin, and nephews, David Martin, Farmington, NM, Joseph Martin, Lake Oswego, OR; niece, Linda Martin, Arizona City, AZ; stepgrandson, William P. Tidmore, Orwigsburg. “When only memories remain, let them be beautiful.” A memorial service will be held at 10:00 a.m. Friday, Jan. 3 at the First United Methodist Church, 330 W. Market Street, Pottsville. The Reverend Bradley Shutt will be officiating. As Georgine wishes interment will be private. Friends and family may call from 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Thursday evening and Friday morning 9:00 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. at Schlitzer Allen Pugh Funeral Home, Sixth and West Market Streets, Pottsville. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute 10 Brookline Place West, 6th Floor Brookline, MA 02445 ATTN: Jimmy's Team or to Wistar Institute, 3601 Spruce St., Philadelphia, PA. 19104.