Obit of Atley, Kittie De (a340) - Unknown County, Oklahoma Submitted by: Gene Phillips 18 Aug 2004 Return to Unknown County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/okstate.html ========================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ========================================================================== KITTIE DE ATLEY Published on March 6, 1999 The Santa Rosa Press Democrat Kittie De Atley, a Fort Bragg school bus driver and a cook for several Mendocino County restaurants, died Wednesday of leukemia at her home in Fort Bragg. She was 76. A memorial services will be at noon today at her house at 32550 Gibney Lane in Fort Bragg. Born in Truckee, Okla., she moved with her family to California when she was 5. As a young girl, her family camped each summer at Caspar Beach. In 1944, she married Albert De Atley, and four years later the family moved to Mendocino County. De Atley worked as the cook and resident manager of the Caspar Lumber Company Cookhouse in the 1940s and early '50s, sometimes preparing three meals a day for as many as 300 men. After the cookhouse closed in 1953, De Atley worked as a cook at the Pine Beach Inn. She also helped clear land to build the family home. She later began a 20-year career at the Paladini Fish House. In her spare time, De Atley could be found in her garden. "She always had a love of flowers," said her son, Ted De Atley of Fort Bragg. "Everybody who drove by the place always said `That's the lady with all the flowers,' because she had such a big garden." At age 52, she began driving school buses for the Fort Bragg Unified School District. She retired in 1988 after 14 years and 150,000 miles. Many Fort Bragg residents remember her as "Grandma Kittie," who drove Bus 8, her family said. When she became ill, her son said that some of her caretakers had been children she ferried home on the school bus. De Atley also is survived by her daughters, Janet Zappelli of Kent, Wash., Linda Daniels of Mendocino and Beckie Woeltge of Eureka; a sister, Norma Russell of South Carolina; eight grandchildren; and eight great- grandchildren. She also helped raise three foster children. She and her husband were married for 54 years. He died in 1998. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to Unknown County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/okstate.html