Dorothy Lindell

Our cherished, Mom, Aunt, Grandma and Friend passed away June 26th, 2023, at the age of 92, due to complications of dementia. She was born May 8th, 1931 to James and Genevieve Janos in Los Angeles, California. Dorothy graduated from John C Fremont High School in Los Angeles in 1949. Dorothy was a very social person from an early age indicated by many lasting friendships that were measured in decades. Even as she approached the age of 90, she had regular phone calls with a girlfriend from kindergarten and lunch with another lifelong Wenatchee friend. After High School, her parents retired and moved everyone to Corona del Mar, California. While there she worked at The Broadway Department Store and, later, the Bank of America in Laguna Beach. Her social life was important and always included her friends and family, which usually meant time at the beach tanning with baby oil, roasting hotdogs on open fires, and just once, involved a spiked watermelon. Being near El Toro MCAS, this gave her the opportunity to develop the most important friendship of her life, that of her future husband Glenn. Married in December 1955, she and Glenn drove her Ford coupe (with no heater) to frigid East Wenatchee where they made their lives as orchardists. That first year of marriage was very difficult. The cold winter ruined the cherry crop that year, nearly bankrupting them just as they started out on their own. Through hard work and determination, she and Glenn had nearly 57 years together celebrating the successes and failures of orcharding. During those many years of raising their family, she worked tirelessly tending to ALL of the thankless tasks – keeping an immaculate house, learning to cook elaborate meals, and raising four boys into successful men. Of course, she was doing much more though: gardening, canning, helping in the orchard, volunteering with the PTA and Jaycees, learning to paint ceramics, and still maintaining those friendships she valued most. She and Glenn travelled extensively for many years. Occasionally, she would travel only with her husband, but often it included others -- her brother Ed and his wife Violet; dear friends, Bill and Jackie Zanol; or Glenn’s brother, Bob & Shirley Lindell. Those trips might have been a short RV trip to Hood Canal or a longer trip to visit family and friends nearly everywhere from Alaska to Florida or New England to her beloved Southern California. She and Glenn cruised the Panama Canal and the Alaska Inside Passage. But the trips she enjoyed most were visiting the Hawaiian Islands which was evident by her tropical flower coffee cup she used daily, a brightly colored bag from Hilo Hatties and Hawaiian shirts that she often wore. When the physical requirements of maintaining her family home exceeded her capabilities, it was important to her family she receive the care that she deserved after decades of serving all of us. And even has her mind wasn’t as sharp as it once was, the one thing it was never able to destroy was her genuine concern for others, graciousness for caregivers, and the pleasant, loving sparkle in her eyes. She most recently lived at Caring Cottage in Wenatchee, where she was simply known as Mama Dorothy. She is survived by her sons Tom (Kathy) of Cashmere; Jeff (Elena) of Auburn; Roger (Donna) of Puyallup; Michael (Kristin) of East Wenatchee. She is also survived by grandchildren Cori, Laura, Cole, Ian, Megan and Mason. Also Bruce and Venny. Her husband, Glenn, and her brother, Edward Janos, preceded her in death. A Memorial Service to celebrate her life will be held Friday, July 21, 2023 at 2:00pm at Evergreen Memorial Park, East Wenatchee. Please consider wearing a Hawaiian shirt or other brightly colored clothing to celebrate Dorothy.

Dorothy Lindell

May 8, 1931 - June 26, 2023