Darlene Kathryn 'Kate' Ludy Shultz passed away April 12, 2012, in White Cliff Nursing Home, Greenville. She was 72.

Darlene was born on a farm in RD Glencoe, PA on May 16, 1939 a daughter of Jacob and Maude Divley Ludy.

She was a 1957 graduate of Berlin Brothersvalley (PA) High School.

Darlene was a telephone operator for Bell Telephone Company in Somerset, PA and Warren, Ohio. She also worked for many years as a switch board operator at the former St. Francis Hospital in New Castle.

Her husband, Bruce W. Shultz, Jr., whom she married December 18, 1971, passed away November 9, 1995.

Surviving are: a brother, Noah 'Tom' J. Ludy and his wife Doll, Fairhope, PA; two sisters, Elaine Werner and her husband Kenneth, Annandale, Virginia; and Sandra Nicholson and her husband Howard, Gallup, New Mexico; and many nieces, nephews and cousins.

Besides her parents and husband, Darlene was preceded in death by nine brothers, William G. Ludy, James E. Ludy, Charles T. Ludy, Jacob 'Ben' B. Ludy, Frank E. Ludy Pile, Carl Frederick Ludy, Harry 'Bunn' F. Ludy, Victor G. Ludy and Edwin John Ludy; and four sisters, Sarah Ludy Smith, Elizabeth Ludy Delozier, Anne Ludy Leister and Mary Ludy Trent.

Funeral service will be 11 a.m. Monday, April 16, 2012, in J. Bradley McGonigle Funeral Home and Crematory, Inc., 1090 E. State St., Sharon, with pastor Fred Baer of Victory Christian Center, officiating.

Family will receive friends in the funeral home from 10 a.m. until the time of service on Monday, April 16, 2012.

Friends may email condolences by visiting www.McGonigleFuneralHomeandCrematory.com.

Interment: Next to her husband Bruce in Morefield Cemetery, Hermitage.