1939
Lela
2014
Lela K Relaford
January 10, 1939 — December 9, 2014
Lela K. Relaford, 75 of Port Orchard, died at St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor on December 9, 2014. She was born January 10, 1939 in Phoenix, Arizona to Byron Frankenfield and Hazel Cox. She married Jim Relaford in Phoenix in 1954. He preceded her in death in 1997.
Lela worked many jobs while raising her 7 children, eventually graduating from Metropolitan Business College and working as an independent paralegal with friend Nelva Sybertz. Some of her past occupations included owning a second hand shop with her sister Melody Hillis, landscape foreman for Civilian Conservation Corporation, apartment manager, dump truck driver, and working for various organizations including a bakery, Value Village, Help Line, a short order cook, and several concession stands.
Lela liked to shop in second hand stores with her sisters, cook, bake, garden, sing, read, watch TV, play cards and board games. She loved true crime, suspense, thrillers & murder mysteries – Perry Mason, Manix, Columbo, Cannon, Rockford Files, Barnaby Jones, Murder She Wrote, Magnum PI, Matlock, Law & Order, and C.S.I were some of her favorite TV programs. She was a Seahawks Fan and also enjoyed golf. Scrabble was her favorite board game. Lela also collected antiques and liked arts & crafts – in particular crocheting. She attended sprint boat races and served on jury duty, and one of her fondest memories was traveling to New Zealand.
There was not a kinder, gentler or purer soul. Lela was vibrant, compassionate, beautiful, generous, humorous loving kind and a “little” stubborn. Whether it was a family holiday dinner, drives to the countryside, picnics, special family functions, or going to casino’s with her sisters, her favorite place to be was with her family,
Lela is survived by her sons Jimmy, John, Ken & Ron Relaford; daughters Molly Lawrence, Annie White & Wanda Koeneman; fifteen grandchildren; sisters Melody Hillis, Myron Gibbs, Janet Harrell, Linda Madding & Evelyn Fernandez; brothers-in-law Fred & Ron Relaford; many nieces & nephews; and her cats “Little Boy” and “Little Girl”.
Lela’s favorite saying was “the man is the head of the family, but the woman is the neck that turns that head”.
Lela worked many jobs while raising her 7 children, eventually graduating from Metropolitan Business College and working as an independent paralegal with friend Nelva Sybertz. Some of her past occupations included owning a second hand shop with her sister Melody Hillis, landscape foreman for Civilian Conservation Corporation, apartment manager, dump truck driver, and working for various organizations including a bakery, Value Village, Help Line, a short order cook, and several concession stands.
Lela liked to shop in second hand stores with her sisters, cook, bake, garden, sing, read, watch TV, play cards and board games. She loved true crime, suspense, thrillers & murder mysteries – Perry Mason, Manix, Columbo, Cannon, Rockford Files, Barnaby Jones, Murder She Wrote, Magnum PI, Matlock, Law & Order, and C.S.I were some of her favorite TV programs. She was a Seahawks Fan and also enjoyed golf. Scrabble was her favorite board game. Lela also collected antiques and liked arts & crafts – in particular crocheting. She attended sprint boat races and served on jury duty, and one of her fondest memories was traveling to New Zealand.
There was not a kinder, gentler or purer soul. Lela was vibrant, compassionate, beautiful, generous, humorous loving kind and a “little” stubborn. Whether it was a family holiday dinner, drives to the countryside, picnics, special family functions, or going to casino’s with her sisters, her favorite place to be was with her family,
Lela is survived by her sons Jimmy, John, Ken & Ron Relaford; daughters Molly Lawrence, Annie White & Wanda Koeneman; fifteen grandchildren; sisters Melody Hillis, Myron Gibbs, Janet Harrell, Linda Madding & Evelyn Fernandez; brothers-in-law Fred & Ron Relaford; many nieces & nephews; and her cats “Little Boy” and “Little Girl”.
Lela’s favorite saying was “the man is the head of the family, but the woman is the neck that turns that head”.
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