Eileen Lyons Roloff's Obituary
Eileen L. Roloff born September 19, 1917, passed away peacefully May 24, 2014 surrounded by family.
Her can-do pragmatic, creative and resilient spirit was forged as the fourth eldest child of twelve growing up on hard-scrabble farms in Rich Hill and Kansas City, Missouri, as well as Fulton and Fort Scott, Kansas. She enjoyed the adventure of riding horses, milking cows, raising chickens, growing vegetables and sewing her own clothes. Known for exceptional intelligence, her education began in a one-room school and led to her graduation from Fulton High School in 1936. In her early 20’s, with the on-set of World War II, she moved to Southern California settling in San Diego with several of her siblings. She worked for Consolidated-Vultte assisting in the repair of B24 bombers for the war effort where she met Harvey Roloff, a Chief Petty Officer at the Navy’s Recuit Training Center in San Diego. They married in 1945 and enjoyed dancing to the big bands of the era and living on Mission Beach in a small hosue that opened up direclty to the beach. After the war, they moved to Oregon and settled in Forest Grove where Harvey was a coach and professor at Pacific University. Their son John Scott and daughter Judy Lynn were born in 1947 and 1949 respectively. Eileen was very active on the Pacific campus, working in the bookstore and as a costumer designer and semstress making elaborate can-can dresses for Forest Grove’s yearly Gay Ninety’s celebrations. In 1955 the family moved to Sacramento, California where Harvey accepted a position as professor and coach at Sacramento State University.
A devoted mother and homemaker, in Sacramento, Eileen designed and orchestrated the building of the family home and became a savvy real estate business woman at Failane Realty. Eileen and Harvey enjoyed an active social life that included athletes of Harvey’s teams and his colleagues. Retiring in the mid 1980’s, they took to the road in their mobile home, enjoying salmon fishing and crabbing in Crescent City, visiting Harvey’s family in northeastern Oregon, and attending basball spring training in Arizona. In the early 1990’s Eileen fulfilled a dream of returning to the San Diego are, where she and Harvey purchased a condo in Oceanside and took care of their daughter JUdy who had a long battle with rhematoid arthritis. Soon after Harvey’s death in 2006, Eileen moved herself and Judy to Napa, CA to be closer to her son John. Judy’s condition gradually declined, ending in her death in 2011. Then in her 90’s, Eileen moved to Alameda, CA and spent tme with her son and his partner Ann. She enjoyed visits and phone calls with friends and relatives, as the favorite aunt of many of nieces and nephews. Eileen maintained a generous, open and vibrant spirit till the end and was famous for comments such as “time takes care of everything.” She was preceded in death by her siblings: Venita, Lena, Bess, Margie, Luther, Lewis, Jack and Bob, her husband Harvey, and her daughters Linda and Judy, she is survived by her sister Ella Mae of Port Angeles, WA, brothers Chuck of Sacramento, CA and John of Lake of the Ozarks, MO and her son John of Oakland, CA.
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