OBITUARY

Lucille May Zandol

Lucille May Zandol

Lucy passed away peacefully at Salem Hospital, with her husband Ken, children and grandchildren by her side.

Lucy was born in Japan to Toshiko and Maurice Irish. After six months, the family moved to Washington, Germany, and then to Ft. Ord, Calif., where Lucy’s father was a drill instructor. In 1959, they moved to Salem.

Lucy graduated from North Salem High School and took a summer job for Marion County where she became a plans checker.

She then went to work for a local builder drawing house plans. Her big break came when she went to work for the developer of King City and Charbonneau. She was put in charge of new construction, Farm Home statewide and a subdivision in Forest Park in Portland. Lucy developed a manual for qualifying new home buyers for Farm Home, the manual is still used by the federal government today. 

After commuting for four years and meeting her future husband, Ken, she decided to try something different. In their first year of marriage, Lucy and Ken built six Farm Home houses in their spare time after work and on weekends. After that, Lucy toned it down to become an escrow officer for a local title company where she worked for 30 years, before retiring in 2017.

Lucy was one of those people that got more done by 9 a.m. than most people do all day. Gardening and landscaping on their small acreage in Keizer was Lucy’s passion. She had literally everything from fruits to nuts, and always had a big garden with many edibles. Her favorite was Blue Lake pole green beans, and always had enough for all her friends. Lucy was an excellent baker and cook, nothing went to waste.

Lucy excelled in arts and crafts, at one time teaching a watercolor painting class. Remodeling was a love of hers, and working on the couple’s 110-year-old farm house was a 25-year project. Lucy was as much at home in Home Depot as she was at Nordstroms. She also enjoyed fishing, clamming, bowling and antiquing.

On one of her many travels, she got to touch the Statue of Liberty, which was one of the biggest highlights of her travels. She also went back to Japan twice to visit.

To say Lucy loved animals would be an understatement. She once had 17 cats simply because they needed a home. Jack (a mini ausi) and Jill (a yellow lab), the family’s dogs, were very devoted to her and always by her side.

Lucy is survived by her husband and best friend, Ken Zandol; mother Toi Heibert,; sons Cameron Zandol. Eli Ritter, Jacob Ritter; daughter Stacee Zandol, and 12 grandchildren.

Lucy and Ken were married for 34 years. No service is planned at this time.