Vilma K. de Brun | Caretaker, 77

Vilma Kean de Brun, 77, of Ardmore, a caretaker, died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma Nov. 24 at Bryn Mawr Hospital.

Since the late 1990s, Mrs. de Brun had been a companion and caretaker for elderly clients in their homes. She prepared their meals, made sure they took their medications, and drove them to appointments, said her daughter, Claudia Boldyga.

Previously, Mrs. de Brun catered parties and dinners for 25 years. Her food presentations were always beautiful, a friend, Gloria Hochman, said. She also was a masseuse and a dog trainer. "She could tame the most ill-mannered dog," Hochman said. Until the early 1990s, she worked for vendors at the Ardmore Farmers Market, a job she held for 15 years.

Mrs. de Brun graduated from West Philadelphia High School in 1947 and then worked for an employment agency in Philadelphia. In 1965, she married Arden de Brun. She and her husband lived on Long Island and in Chicago. After they divorced in 1976, she and their daughter moved to Ardmore.

She enjoyed art, theater and music. As a child, she sang on the weekly television variety program

Horn & Hardart's Children's Hour

. She often would start off a phone conversation with a song, Hochman said.

"She was a funny, cheery person," Hochman said. "She would go to the supermarket on a shopping trip and by the time she left, she would be on a first-name basis with everyone who worked there."

In addition to her daughter, Mrs. de Brun is survived by a brother and two grandsons and her former husband.

A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. today, Mrs. de Brun's 78th birthday, at Stuard Funeral Home, 104 Cricket Ave., Ardmore.