Bernice Vivan Bellinger, jewelry store owner
Bernice Vivan (Yanhko) Bellinger died Friday, April 25, 2025, at Golden Crest in Hampstead, Md. She was born at home in Egg Harbor City, N.J., to Elizabeth Wilhemina (Grams) Yanhko and Henry Yanhko as the third of six children Sept. 8, 1924.
Bernice moved to Washington, D.C., to work for the government at the beginning of World War II. She met her husband Glenn there after his service in the U.S. Navy, and they married in 1946.
Bernice and Glenn lived in Hyattsville, Md., where they raised three children. After Glenn closed G.G. Bellinger Manufacturing Jewelers after 27 years in Washington, they moved to Lewes and opened Ye Ole Jewel Shoppe in Rehoboth Beach in 1974, doing business as Bellinger's Jewelers. Several years after retiring, they moved to Westminster, Md., and then to Hampstead, Md.
Bernice liked to stay busy, and besides being a homemaker and later working with Glenn, she was active in her community as a Cub Scout den mother and a Girl Scout leader, in her various churches as a Sunday school teacher and deacon, and as a long-term bookkeeper at her Westminster Presbyterian Church in Rehoboth Beach. She enjoyed bowling, braiding wool rugs, ceramics, embroidering, crocheting, gardening, and especially travelling with Glenn across all 50 states and also outside of the US.
Bernice is survived by her children, Bob (Pat Zungoli) (Pendleton, S.C.), Glenna Kinney (Chuck) (Westminster, Md.), and Dale (Nancy) (Rehoboth Beach); eight grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by her husband of 75 years, Glenn; older brother, Henry; sisters Lela (Laielli) and Julia (Lott); and grandson, Nick Bellinger.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m., Tuesday, April 29, at First United Presbyterian Church in Westminster, Md. lnterment will occur at Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery at a date to be announced.
ln lieu of flowers, donations in Bernice's name may be made to Bridginglife Hospice Care, Autism Delaware, or a charity of choice.
Services and arrangements handled by Pritts Funeral Home & Chapel, Westminster, Md.
Online condolences can be made to the family at prittsfuneralhome.com.
