Phyllis Jean Croft Wassell, a nurse who nurtured everyone around her with lady locks, pierogies and crocheted blankets, died of complications from a staph infection on Wednesday at UPMC Presbyterian.

Mrs. Wassell, of West Homestead, was 80.

"She would do everything for anybody, but nothing for herself," said her son, Tom Wassell, a pilot who lives in Munhall.

Mrs. Wassell would knit lap afghans for people in wheelchairs and baby blankets for single mothers, handicrafts she donated through her church, Holy Angels in Hays.

She started her nursing career in maternity and labor delivery at the former Homestead Hospital in the late 1940s, and then turned to private practice as she raised her six children with her late husband, Jack.

When she was 55, she worked at Eldercrest Nursing Center in Munhall, and retired after 10 years.

An easygoing woman, she was beloved by her large extended family. They cried for her this week while eating the last batch of lady locks she had made and frozen for them.

"If she ever disagreed with you, she wouldn't tell you," said her granddaughter, Jill Wassell, 23, of Munhall. "She would raise her eyebrows."

She was a fanatical Steelers fan who crocheted a black and gold afghan for her son Tom and watched the games with him while they enjoyed a seafood dinner.

When Mrs. Wassell underwent dialysis five years ago, she didn't want her children to tell the nursing staff that she was a nurse because of the stereotype that nurses make bad patients, said Mr. Wassell. But she never complained during all of the hardships of her illness and was a favorite patient of the medical staff.

Besides her son Tom, she is survived by a daughter, Sue Wieczenski of West Homestead; sons Jack of Ashton, Md., Terry of Morgantown, W.Va., Michael of Huntsville, Ala., and Bill of Silver Spring, Md.; seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

A Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. today at Holy Angels Church in Hays.