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- Kingman Daily Miner, Kingman, AZ -
Published on May 7, 2014 -
Ella J. DeWees, 98, died Dec. 29, 2013, in Kingman from natural causes. Born in Combined Locks, Wisconsin in 1915, the oldest daughter of 12 children of John and Johanna DeGroot, she worked in the family grocery store until she was 24 and then left to travel and live in Miami Beach.
She settled in Long Beach, California in 1948. Nicknamed Pennie by that time, she found that she loved the ocean, the beaches and the bustling downtown of Long Beach. She married and had one daughter and later divorced. From 1963 to 2004, she worked at the Long Beach School Credit UnionAd by Start Savin; she was the smiling face at the reception desk. She loved to walk and always walked to work. She was an early health food enthusiast and enjoyed excellent health until almost the end of her life.
Always on the go, she loved to dance, golf, cook and host parties at home. Travel was another passion - she took 20 cruises, going everywhere from Europe to Alaska to Hong Kong.
Pennie moved to Kingman in 2009 to be near family and lived at Helen's Place on Sunrise Avenue until her passing. She enjoyed Kingman for the beautiful sunsets, the many historic buildings, the huge stores and the Hualapai Mountains. She was preceded in death by Sherwood DeWees in 1974 and in 2008 by Gunnar Gardsten, whom she was partnered with for 27 years.
She is survived by daughter Catherine Quillin of Hackberry; two grandsons, Matthew and David; and one sister, Theresa Sanders of Compton, California. Her remains are buried at Westminster Memorial Park in Westminster, California.
A long and busy life lived during the best years of the United States, and more than ready to move on to the next place when her time came.
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1916 - 2013 (97 years)
