Luella Mae Gardenhour Burger Mattern, age 97, of Waynesboro, PA died recently. Born in 1928, in Smithsburg, MD, she was
the daughter of the late Raymond K. and Leona Otto Gardenhour.
She was a 1946 graduate of Smithsburg High School, a 1947 graduate of Hagerstown Business College and attended Hagerstown Community College as a business major.
She studied piano with Hilda Clopper and organ under Asher Edelman, St. and Claire Johannson. She was organist at Trinity Lutheran Church, Smithsburg, Holy Comforter Lutheran Church, Washington, D.C., Presbyterian Church of Hagerstown, Bethel Assembly of God, Hagerstown, and Otterbein Church, Waynesboro, retiring in 2011. She had been a member of the Trinity Lutheran Church choirs in Smithsburg and Hagerstown and Otterbein Church, Waynesboro. She was a member of the Maryland Federation and National Federation of Music Clubs, the Treble Clef Club, Hagerstown, and the American Organists’ Guild.
She was a member of the Washington County Hospital Auxiliary and the Waynesboro Hospital Auxiliary. She was president of the Blue Ridge Garden Club, member of the Rhodes Grove U.B. Camp Auxiliary and Camp Joy-El Auxiliary.
She participated in mission trips to Thailand, Honduras, and Jamaica. She volunteered at Officers’ Christian Fellowship at White Sulfur Springs, Pa; Teen Missions, Merritt Island, FL, Jesus Film Project, San Bernardino, CA, Wycliffe Bible Associates, Huntington Beach, CA and Waxhaw, NC.
She went on trips with Elderhostel and on cruises. She was a member of Women’s Aglow, Hagerstown, and Christian Women’s Club, Hagerstown; the Visitation Committee, Missions Team, Prayer Team and Choir, Otterbein Church.
She enjoyed art, studying with Clyde Roberts, Betty Kaytes, Lonnie Jenkins, Elizabeth Stacey-Hurley, Ann Gobin and David Good and was a member of the Waynesboro Studio Art Club, The Art Alliance Club and the Prometheus Group. Two of her oil paintings were donated and hung in the new Jamaica Bible College Library, Jamaica and Waynesboro Hospital. She was a homemaker.
Her first husband, Paul E. Burger, architect, whom she married in 1949, died in 1988. They had their home near Boonsboro, MD. Her second husband, James P. Mattern, Col. (Retired), died in 2022. She is survived by her son, Jeffery Burger and his wife, Misa; son, Gary Burger and his wife, Linda; daughter, Kirby Burger and her husband Jim Sitter; stepson, James Mattern, Jr. and his wife Mira; stepson, Jack Mattern and his wife, Julia; stepdaughter, Karen Summers; sister, Mary Happel; sister, Carolyn Williams; three grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, three step-children, four step-grandchildren, two step-great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews and cousins.
A memorial service will be held at a future time. Contact Pastor John Huffman at Otterbein for details at (240) 520-4743. Burial will be in the Smithsburg Cemetery at the family’s convenience. Memorial gifts may be given to Otterbein Church, Waynesboro, Missions Fund, 801 Park St., Waynesboro, PA 17268.
