Rose Ann Tinneny  ^H34 

Rose Ann Tinneny was the 7th child and 6th daughter of Patrick Tinneny and Margaret Malloy.  She was born in the family home at 14 East Shaw Street, Greenock, Scotland on October 24, 1890 and baptized at Saint Mary's Church in Greenock.   

Rose attended school in Greenock prior to her family moving to America.  Her father and older brother John and sisters Catherine and Mary Jane preceded the rest of the family to Philadelphia in America. 

SS Sardinian 

On December 27, 1900, Rose's mother sailed aboard the SS Sardinian from Scotland to America with Rose and her siblings Margaret, Alice, Elizabeth, James and Patrick.  After a rough and cold passage across the Atlantic they arrived in the port of New York on January 12, 1901.  Rose remembered how very rough the passage was and for that reason said that she would never consider crossing the ocean again. 

Rose told the story of how as a young girl, along with her older brother Jim, she would take a sip from her father's whiskey bottle.  He usually marked his bottle with a pencil to indicate the amount that remained.  After Rose and Jim took their little nips they would either remark the bottle or add water up to the last mark that their father had made on the label. 

She attended Saint John the Baptist Grade School in Manayunk.  She completed eighth grade there and at age 13, due to her father being ill, she left school and went to work to help with family finances. She worked in one of the textile mills along the canal in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia.  Many years later she recalled how she walked several miles to work to avoid spending the 5 cents that it would have cost to ride the bus. 

On April 9, 1913, Rose married Joseph William Yeakel at Holy Family Church in Manayunk.  Joseph was born in Philadelphia on April 28, 1888.  He was the son of Anton Yeakel and Madeline Wiegand.   

On Tuesday May 16, 1918, Rose, Joseph and their children moved from the house they lived in on Pechin Street to 183 School Street in the West Manayunk Section of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.  Their new house, which Joseph had moved from its original location in Roxborough, was located in the hills high above the west bank of the Schuylkill River across from Manayunk.  It must have been quite a fright for the family when the house was struck by lightening at 5:30 on May 24, 1919.  The event so impressed Joseph that he documented it in his diary. 

Like so many other Tinnenys Rose was musically inclined.  She played both the accordion and the harmonica.  In addition to her musical skills Rose also acted in plays put on in the auditorium of Holy Family School.  She was also an avid reader and always was very much up on current events.  

For the 1930 Census of The United States the Yeakel home at 183 School Street in Lower Marion Township, West Manayunk, in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania was visited on April 26, 1930. The record shows Joseph was 41, Rose 38, Mary 14, John 12, James 10 and Regina (Jeannie) less than a year old.

Photo:  L –R Jean Yeakel, her cousin Helen McKenna, Bill Gillard and Rose Tinneny Yeakel (daughter of Yankee Pat) - early 1940s

In her later years Rose developed diabetes which first caused one of her legs to be removed then the other.  Her daughter Jean said that when her mother learned that she would loose the second leg she demonstrated once again her great faith.  Jean said that her mother "picked up her rosary and said that she was being tested" and was resigned to the loss. 

               Photo Right: Rose on the boardwalk at Wildwood, New Jersey, early 1940s

Rose's husband Joseph died in October 1967 in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He had been admitted to the hospital with what was probably prostate cancer. He was had been in the hospital about 9 days when the family received a call at 2:00a.m. one morning. The person from the hospital told his daughter Jean that her father was taking a turn for the worse.  She and her brother Jimmy went to the hospital and talked with him and he seemed to take an upward turn. Jean and Jimmy went home and at about 6:00a.m. they received a call from the hospital telling them their father had passed away.  Their mother Rose on being told of her husband Joseph’s death said that she heard a strong knock on the door during the night and said it was the Angel of death.

Photo: Rose in her chair 1960s.

Courtesy of Jean Yeakel 

Although she had many interests in the last years of her life, after loosing her legs, she very much enjoyed sitting out on the front porch of her home no matter what the weather.  She made it a point of talking with each of the children as they went back and forth on the sidewalk.  When the children weren't out to talk Rose would sit there in her chair and pray the rosary for her special causes then for the neighbors who lived in the various houses on her street.  She was known for having a smile and a greeting for all.  Rose and Joseph had six children Joseph, Mary, John, James, Alberta and Regina. 

In early 1970 Rose began to decline. She lost her appetite and the doctor would come to the house and treat her and give her B-12 shots. During the early morning of May 4, 1970 Rose died in her sleep at her home on School Street. She was found with a peaceful expression on her face by her daughter Jean who lived with her. She and her husband are buried in Calvary Cemetery, Conshohocken, Pennsylvania which is just outside Philadelphia.