Selma Louise Kompel

Selma Louise (Hughes) Kompel, age 90, resident of Glasgow, Mont., for the past 11 years, and previously of Auburntown, Tenn., and Pleasant Valley, N.Y., passed away peacefully on Saturday, May 23, 2020, at 12:50 a.m., at Valley View Nursing Home in Glasgow with loved ones all around her.

She was cremated and will be laid to rest at Washington Hollow Cemetery in Pleasant Valley. A celebration of life and graveside service for family and friends will be in Pleasant Valley on a date to be determined due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Born Friday, Sept. 13, 1929, in New York City, N.Y., she was the daughter of the late Selma and Edward Hughes. She attended Julia Richmond High School in New York City, and nursing school at The Hospital for Joint Diseases in New York City. She was a “good” nurse as she once jokingly told someone, working in emergency rooms and hospitals, eventually working at Cardinal Hayes Home for Children in Millbrook, N.Y. She married the late Robert Kompel in 1949 and made their home in the beautiful hills of Pleasant Valley.

She enjoyed knitting and crocheting, ceramics, reading, maintaining a very organized home, a good cup of coffee and time with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She made the best pork roast, potatoes and red cabbage ever and would do anything to help out her family, whether it was assisting in putting up an electrical weather head on an old farm house, babysit grandkids, or just be a strong, quiet presence when life would come crashing down hard due to tragic death or loss. Her actions said what her words often could not. Also, Selma’s love for her two sisters, Edna Steck, of Montauk, N.Y., and the late Marion Capri, of Florida, and their families were a huge part of her life as well. She enjoyed taking her children to the beach with her sisters, nieces and nephews, eating blueberry pancakes, peanut butter sandwiches, drinking lemonade and keeping track of all the kids. Stories of those days were often the source of much laughter and fun, leaving all the kids wondering how they survived piling in a big car without seatbelts and occasionally falling out! She was a small but mighty woman with the nickname “Big Lou.” Her grandchildren knew that if their moms said NO, just go ask Grandma!

She volunteered at the Pleasant Valley Library in Pleasant Valley, and Auburntown Library in Auburntown. She also volunteered at the Sargent York Veterans Administration Hospital in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Her greatest accomplishment was the legacy she lived, having a good work ethic, pragmatism, as well as her devotion to family. Selma was such a loving, supportive, sensible mother and grandmother who will be greatly missed.

Selma is survived by three children, Karen Wagner, of Stanfordville, N.Y., Heidi Lind (Mark), of Fairland, Ind., and Robert Kompel (Kim), of Glasgow; six grandchildren, Thomas Wagner, Richard Wagner (Caitlin), Enya Lind, Savina Lind, Zach Kompel and Ben Kompel; two great-grandchildren, Charlotte Wagner and Jacob Wagner; one sister, Edna Steck; one brother-in-law, Jerry Capri; and several beloved nieces and nephews.

Memorial contributions can be made to Valley View Nursing Home in Glasgow.

Here’s to a life well-lived!