Washington County chief deputy coroner
Susan Falvo Warco had a heart full of grace and compassion.
As one of the first women to be a licensed funeral director and chief deputy coroner in Washington County — alongside her husband, county Coroner S. Timothy
Warco — her warmth and expertise was the balm that soothed grieving loved ones.
A former nurse and longtime co-owner and manager of the Warco-Falvo Funeral Home Inc. with her husband in Washington, Pa., Mrs. Falvo Warco died on July 29 of heart failure. She was 68.
She grew up in North Franklin, where she met Mr. Warco as an eighth grade student in the Trinity school district.
“It was [love at first sight],” recalled Mr. Warco, who met her at a bus stop when he was a freshman in high school.
Three years after graduating from Trinity High School in 1970, Mrs. Falvo Warco married her childhood sweetheart while he was studying to become a funeral director.
She attended St. Francis School of Nursing in Bloomfield and worked as a licensed practical nurse at an extended care facility of the Washington Hospital and at Kane Hospital and Kade Nursing Home, and as a private-duty nurse.
“She worked as a nurse while I was in mortuary school, and she helped to support us — it was her nursing salary that kept us going,” Mr. Warco said.
In 1978, the couple purchased and renamed the Robert C. Gordon Home for Funerals near Washington Hospital on Wilson Avenue, where the funeral home remains today.
Mrs. Falvo Warco eventually quit her nursing job and worked full time at the funeral home, where the couple lived and raised their family in an upstairs residence. They later bought a second home in South Strabane.
“She was an incredibly hard worker,” her husband said. “She greeted clients with me, composed obituaries and did all of the necessary paperwork.”
Her role as a mother was always the top priority in her life, recalled her youngest child, A.J. Warco, of New York City.
“When I went to preschool, I had a lot of anxiety about leaving my mom,” he said. “I had to hold my teacher’s hand all the time — the entire year. My mom used to give me a business card with a picture of her and Dad on it, and I would put it in my pocket.”
“She cut a little blanket into pieces so he would always have a piece with him,” Mr. Warco said.
“There was never a time when Mom wasn’t there,” her son added. “She always made time, no matter what she was doing.”
Even during rare summer getaways, Mrs. Falvo Warco put her children first.
“We spent a lot of time at Conneaut Lake in the summertime, and she would leave and drive A.J. to baseball practice — it was 200 miles, round trip,” Mr. Warco said.
When her children were older, Mrs. Falvo Warco enrolled in the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science, where she graduated summa cum laude in 1995.
“She excelled in her classes,” her husband said. “She worked diligently — I never knew anyone who worked harder. She would come home from school, study all night, then work at the funeral home, all while taking care of the kids.”
For 26 years, Mrs. Falvo Warco worked alongside her husband as chief deputy coroner.
“She did that pro bono,” said Mr. Warco, who has served as coroner for the past 30 years. “She did that out of love for me. She oversaw field operations and investigations, coordinated autopsies and made sure paperwork was in order. She knew exactly what to do, because she was certified to do the job. And, she always made sure families were taken care of.”
But, it could be overwhelming at times.
“I did a lot of skiing and hunting, and one time when I was in West Virginia, she called me and said, ‘I’m quitting. This is too hard,’” he said, laughing. “But, of course, she didn’t mean it.”
When it all got to be too much, Mrs. Falvo Warco also knew how to unwind with a favorite book or cruising in her beloved Mini Cooper. She lunched with friends when she could and visited her favorite beauty salon, Studio 7, every week.
“She also loved to go to Vegas with me and play the slots,” Mr. Warco said. “I actually bought her a slot machine. She knew how to have fun, to let her hair down.”
A doting grandmother to her three grandchildren, Mrs. Falvo Warco spent countless hours cheering in bleachers, on sidelines and in audiences.
“She was a selfless person who put everybody else before herself,” her son said. “She instilled her values in us, and above everything else, she taught us to always be compassionate.”
To the clients at the funeral home, she was an invaluable source of empathy and a shoulder to cry on, her husband said.
“Families are very emotional at the time of their loss, but she had the natural ability to calm them,” he said. “She was very patient making arrangements, and it isn’t always an easy thing to do.
You have to be a special person to deal with that. She can never be replaced.”
Along with her husband, her grandchildren and her son, Mrs. Falvo Warco is survived by her other children, Holly Renay Warco, of Miami, and S. Timothy Warco II, of North Franklin; her mother, Betty J. Verno Falvo, of North Franklin; and her sister, Judy Baxendell, of South Franklin.
Her funeral was last week. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial contributions to John F. Kennedy Catholic School, 111 W. Spruce St., Washington, PA 15301.