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- Foster Phillips Funeral Home, Inc.
Ida Pearl Cruz (Picture included)
February 4, 1940 ? August 12, 2018
Ida Pearl Cruz of Neptune, New Jersey joined our loving Creator at 5:26 AM, Sunday, August 12, 2018 at Jersey Shore University Hospital. Ida was born in Orange County, North Carolina to the proud parents of Theotha and Rosa Bass on February 4, 1940. She was the fourth of four children.
After the death of her mother, the family relocated to Glen Cove, New York, where she was raised by Beatrice Bass, her stepmother. Ida attended elementary school and junior high school in Glen Cove, New York and high school in Jamaica, New York. It was there she met and married her first husband George V. Matthews, June, 1957. From this union, five children were born. After the separation of that union, she met and married her second husband, Antoine S. Cruz, December, 1976. One child was born from that union.
While raising her 6 children, Ida was fortunate to obtain various forms of employment that helped to enrich her life and the lives of her children. While living in New York City, she was employed by the South Jamaica Housing Authority and the New York City School System in the dietary school lunch program, where she was able to continue her passion of cooking. After moving to Monmouth County, New Jersey in 1997, she continued her employment at Fort Monmouth Army Base, where she assisted and maintained the offices of various scientists in the McAfee Building until its closing in May, 2011.
Ida was born into the Bass family church, Siloam Baptist Church in Rougemont, North Carolina, where she was baptized. There, she learned and loved everything about her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. With her love of God, she continued as a servant at various churches. While living in South Jamaica, she attended Shiloh Baptist Church. Then she joined Mount Olivet Baptist Church in Hollis, New York, where she was an active member of the Women?s Usher Board, the Culinary Ministry and the Building Fund Ministry where she worked tirelessly assisting to raise money to build their new church. Under the Covenant of her Pastor, she attended the Morning Star Bible University, where she was able to learn and understand the entire Bible and what its intense stories were truly about. After arriving in New Jersey, Ida joined Second Baptist Church in Long Branch, New Jersey, where she attended just to hear the word and enjoy the various choirs she loved.
Ida, ?Pearl? as she was called more often, loved gardening and made that her true passion everywhere she lived; and up to and after her illness you could always find Pearl in her garden or tending to her various flowers. She loved gardening so much, that she played an integral part in beginning of the ?South Jamaica Beautification Project? during the 1970?s, where she helped to create a vegetable garden in the back of her building and a flower garden in the front. She enjoyed sharing her gardening passion with her grandchildren when they would visit. Pearl?s other passion was ?family!? Pearl would continue her father?s legacy of annual cook-outs with the motto ?Come One, Come All.? Everyone was invited and she tried to cook everything with no help. Hence, she finally turned that passion over to her son Jason. She loved her family and made sure she knew everything about everyone and tried to fix all things even if they were out of her control. Ida Pearl was the ?Glue? that held this family together and she will truly be missed.
Ida leaves to mourn her passing, her six children; Richard T. Matthews (wife, Nancy Matthews), Cheryl D. Lewis (husband, Milton Lewis Sr.), Jacqueline Pressley (husband, Anthony Pressley), Danielle B. Owens (husband, Darrell Owens), Pastor Dwayne V. Matthews (wife, Mellissa Matthews), Jason H. Cruz (partner, Shantel Gibson); twenty one grandchildren; twenty five great-grandchildren; one sister Nina Davis; one brother Nathaniel Bass; a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, other relatives and friends.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1940 - 2018 (78 years)
, d. Jan 1878, Queens, New York City, New York