URSULA “PENNY” SELLS

Ursula “Penny” Sells, age 92 of Batavia and Sun City West, AZ, passed away Sunday, March 10, 2024, surrounded by the love and prayers of her family and beloved toy poodle, Tauri while claiming the promise of her Savior.  She was born December 10, 1931, in Chicago, IL, to loving parents, Walter and Amanda Treu.

Penny grew up in Chicago and attended local schools. She graduated from Jones Commercial High School. She continued her education at the College of DuPage.  Penny met Ralph Sells at a local gas station and after one date at the drive-in movie theater, they were inseparable.  Soul mates at first sight they were engaged by July and married on February 2, 1952 at St. Priscilla Church in Chicago.  They first lived with Ursula’s parents, and then moved to their own apartment where their first child, Ralph Walter, was born.  They bought a half-acre lot in Lombard, on which they had a shell home built in March 1954.  Three girls would follow through stops in Grand Terrace, CA and back to Glendale Heights, IL.  Each brought the smell of sawdust and renovations that Ralph and Penny painstakingly undertook, making each house a home.  During the children’s teenage years, weekends were spent camping in the family’s RV’s.  In 1976, Penny went for a ride and spotted a raised ranch for sale on a country ¾- acre.  The next morning the whole family went to view and buy the new house in Batavia, IL.  In the spring of 1978, a summer home was purchased on the Fox River and the next fifteen years were filled with weekends and vacations filled with picnics, boating, remodeling, and building a two-story addition.  In 1994 they sold their river house, replacing it with a winter home in Sun City West, AZ where more friends and memories were made.   Penny spent the summers in Batavia making more memories with her children, grandchildren & great-grandchildren.

Penny brought value to her education by working as an accounting secretary, then administrative assistant before becoming a national consignment accounts manager. In 1976, she became the assistant purchasing manager with direction over 7 million expenditures per year for Noranda Building Products Company, formerly the U.S. Aluminum and Chemical Corporation. Of all the investments she made, her family brought the most return and it was the time in their company that she cherished the most.

Penny was an institution unto herself. She helped run businesses as well as her home, remodeled homes, planned and harvested her precious vegetable garden with Ralph and competed with him in the kitchen. Later years brought new twists and ingenuity to her culinary concoctions to the delight of her family. She had a head for numbers making tax time (or buying vehicles) a breeze. Penny was a master seamstress whose hands brought together countless fabrics, templates and iron fingers that wove incredible everything from wedding dresses, gowns, curtains to reupholstered chairs and boat covers. She had the gift of gab and never found a reason to keep an opinion. Her independent spirit brought her into many different social circles where she shared an indomitable spirit that could always find a silver lining. Her faith was her bedrock, and her soundtrack echoed her faith with innumerable renditions of O Holy Mother, especially an eclectic one that combined the genius of both Pavarotti and Eric Clapton. In recent years, Penny gave of her time to a computer and sewing clubs when she wasn’t hiking in the mountains or riding her motorized bike with her favorite four-legged friend Tauri, a toy poodle that spent years impersonating her shadow. When she wasn’t out and about, Penny kept her mind sharp with crossword puzzles and counting the thousands of blessings she received throughout her life. Penny lived for the moment of each day. Her spirit was incomparable, irreplaceable and will forever be remembered in the hearts of all who loved her.

She leaves four children: Ralph (Nancy) Sells, Valerie Fritz, Jane Sells, and Yvonne Applegate; 6 grandchildren; 7 great-grandchildren; one nephew, Wally Treu and a family of friends from Illinois to Arizona.

She is preceded in death by her husband, Ralph Sells and one brother, Walter Treu.

A memorial Mass will be held at the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, 801 Oak St. North Aurora, 60542, Saturday, May 11, 2024, at 11 a.m. Private family burial will follow at a later date.

Memories and tributes may be left on the Conley Funeral Home Facebook Page, or at www.conleycare.com.

A memorial Mass will be held at the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, 801 Oak St. North Aurora, 60542, Saturday, May 11, 2024, at 11 a.m. Private family burial will follow at a later date. Memories and tributes may be left on the Conley Funeral Home Facebook Page, or at www.conleycare.com.