Mary Eileen (Boyle) Karluk, of East Amwell Township, NJ, died peacefully at home on Thursday, August 20, 2020, surrounded by her loving husband and family.

Mary Eileen Boyle was the no-nonsense oldest sister of eight children born to Francis X. and Helen Boyle in the Olney neighborhood of Philadelphia. She graduated from Little Flower High School and the St. Joseph’s Hospital School of Nursing. Eileen served in the US Army in South Korea during the Korean War at a hospital that treated civilian casualties. She met her future husband of 66 years, Bernard “Jake” Karluk, in Korea and they were married July 4, 1954. Shetook time off from nursing to raise their family of four: Michael (Barbara), Madeleine, Diane, and Patrick (Jill), in Pennington and North Branch, New Jersey.

A proudly liberal voice, she was active with the League of Women Voters, and enjoined her children to never cross a picket line. A parishioner of St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Lambertville, NJ for over 30 years, she is remembered as a very caring, selfless person, who set a high standard for herself and others. She returned to nursing at the Raritan Extended Care Facility in Raritan, NJ and after moving to suburban St. Louis, completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree at St. Louis University and worked as Head Nurse in the Neurology ward of the St. Louis VA Hospital. After returning to New Jersey, she worked at the Lyons VA Hospital, the Forensic Unit of the Trenton State Prison, and in the Juvenile Detention facility.

Eileen was the face of Carl Fischer Candies in Ewing and Lawrenceville, NJ for 30 years. She always put their loyal customers first and the company provided their handmade confections to numerous charitable fundraising events for churches and social service groups. She is remembered as a tireless worker holding forth at the candy store and then going on to her nursing work in the evening. She was an avid reader of the New York Times and a lover of classic movies. While watching old movies on the television she used to turn to her husband and exclaim: “Hey Beatus, what do you think of that?”

She is survived by her husband and four children; grandchildren, Nicole Karluk, Daniel Karluk, and Jenna Karluk; great grandchildren, Jade, Rubi, Corvus, and Denzin Karluk; and siblings, Rosemary Warnock, Thomas Boyle, James Boyle, and Rita Shorthill.

Per Eileen’s request, a mass of Christian Burial at St. John the Evangelist Church, Lambertville, NJ, and final disposition are private under the care and direction of Wright & Ford Family Funeral Home and Cremation Services, 38 State Highway 31, Flemington, NJ 08822.

Please visit Eileen’s permanent memorial site at www.wrightfamily.com to light a memorial candle, leave messages of condolence, share words of comfort and recollection, and post photographs of her life.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Doctors Without Borders via the donation platform ‘In Memory of’. Please click HERE to be taken to her personal and secure donation page. For those who wish to mail in a contribution, please do so by making a check payable to ‘In Memory Of’, noting ‘Eileen Karluk’ in the memo, and mailing to: In Memory Of, P.O. Box 5472, Charlottesville, VA 22905.

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Wright & Ford, your local, family owned & operated “Life Celebration Home”