Irene Milan dedicated her life to making other people happy.

She passed away this week at the age of 87. Irene’s signature act was playing Santa Claus in various homes and public places in Carbon County for an incredible 50 years.Singing Santa and her elves“My mother just loved to play Santa,” said her daughter, Terrie Cinicola. “Every Christmas she would go to local nursing homes, hospitals, personal care facilities and even into neighborhood homes. And she would play St. Nicholas at St. Joseph’s School as well.”Irene’s busy holiday schedule would often leave her children at home while she took her show, with original music and all, on the road.“We fixed that problem,” said Cinicola. “All four of her children became her elves and she took us with her. Then when we got to be too old, she took along grandchildren.”A self-taught singer and musician who trained herself how to play the guitar, and took tap dancing lessons while she was in her 60s, Irene wrote and recorded several songs including her holiday special, “Gingles,” about a little reindeer and another hit tune was a tribute to the miners from Coaldale with her “Coaldust Polka,” which was placed in a time capsule in JFK Park in Lansford in 1976.“Mom was always outgoing. It started when she played Santa in grade school,” said Cinicola. “She was very community minded and just loved everyone.”Irene was featured in a 2002 Times News story as the singing Santa Claus, a role she continued to perform until she turned 83 years old.More characters and costumesThe jolly ol’ fat man was not Irene’s only character. She was the Shurfine Bear at the Jim Thorpe Market for many years. She was a leprechaun in the Jim Thorpe parade for eight years and often dressed up as a clown at birthday parties. She was a star entertainer at the Cancer Telethon held at Penn’s Peak.“She had a wonderful way with children,” said Judy Miller, another of her daughters. “As a clown she amazed kids with her juggling acts. As Santa, she was especially good at getting reluctant and even crying kids to sit on her lap.”“She had so much fun making people laugh and she loved to hug and kiss everybody she met.”Optimism personifiedIrene grew up in Coaldale as a big fan of Fred Astaire, Danny Kaye, and Louis Armstrong. She met Armstrong and got his autograph in the late 1940s at the Lakewood Ballroom in Barnesville.Irene and her husband, Cletus, who together had owned the Weatherly Herald newspaper, celebrated their 58th wedding anniversary this past June.“Our dad supported my mom in everything she wanted to do. He was very proud of her.”Irene’s son Cletus recalled accompanying his mother, who had volunteered for 25 years, to deliver food to homes for Meals on Wheels.“Mom couldn’t just stop and deliver the meals. She would break into a song or talk to the people to cheer them up. She was so animated you think she might embarrass someone, but that was certainly not her intention. She was just Mom being Mom.”Cletus explained that his mother believed that people should never hold themselves back from doing what they wanted to do. Negativity was never a word in her vocabulary. She could turn every black cloud into bright sunshine.Irene’s unselfish nature became widely known. There were many unsuccessful attempts to pay her for her entertainment services, but if people insisted she be paid, she gave the money to the St. Vincent’s food pantry.Special momentsHer friend of 40 years, Margaret Diehm, owner of the Margaret Diehm Beauty Salon in Jim Thorpe, called Irene her “partner in nonsense.”“We were two peas in a pod. We would do things late on Halloween nights that might get us arrested today,” she said. “Once we strung up a bunch of laundry detergent bottles on the outside of a house and another time we duct taped a storm door shut so the homeowner couldn’t get out. Of course these people knew it was us who did it, which made it all the more fun.”Diehm spoke of another special moment in her memory when Irene drove up to Margaret’s brother-in-law’s house with a cake and a table and chairs to set up a birthday party for him on his lawn.“It was the first time in his 65 years of his life that my brother-in-law had a birthday party,” she said.“Friends, family and people she met for the first time were all treated the same by Irene. She did not know a stranger,” said Margaret. “She talked with everyone, and hugged them all, too.”Her lifetime of services was not limited to entertaining audiences. She was lector, a choir member, and a Eucharistic Minister at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Jim Thorpe. She was a member of the Court Ryan Catholic Daughters of America and a volunteer at Mother Pauline’s Thrift Store.Irene Milan brought joy to all. For 365 days a year, she was a real Santa Claus giving gifts of smiles that will be seen for years to come on the faces of everyone who was touched by her extraordinary spirit.See Page 4 for service information.