In 1944, the family moved to Ventura, California where she graduated from high school in 1950. In 1952, she was employed at the US Navy base in Port Hueneme, California. It was at the base that she met her husband, John Skeele, who was a Navy lieutenant.

They were married in 1954 and moved to Carson, Washington. Over the next nine years Mitzi and John had four children. In 1969, they moved to Battle Ground, Washington where they lived for the next 38 years.

Mitzi loved the countryside and was a consummate homemaker, always cooking and baking delicious meals for the family. She worked for a local gift shop for about 20 years, was an active member of the Battle Ground Methodist Church, did volunteer work at a local nursing home and had many friends. She loved her big dogs and cats and loved watching the birds at her feeders. Her greatest interest however was in her children and grandchildren. Wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, friend, confidant, “silly sister, greatest pal”, she was full of God’s grace and was the center of gravity around which we all orbited.

In 2007, John and Mitzi moved to Mary’s Woods Retirement Community in Lake Oswego. She is survived by her husband, John; her sons, Jeff (Linda), Jonathan (Yvonne) and Peter (Tina); and her daughter, Anne; as well as eleven grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; sister, Marza; and many cousins, nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held at the Mary’s Woods Chapel at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 30.

She has requested that, in lieu of flowers, any donations should be sent to the orphanage founded by her hospice caregiver at peaceforpaulfoundation.org.