Obituaries 12-17-15

Donna Lee Podesto
Donna Lee Podesto (Bauman Hiatt), of Cloverdale, died Nov. 20, 2015. She is survived by her husband, Alan E. Podesto, of Modesto; daughter, Angie Bauman, of Healdsburg; sisters, Patty Adair, of Sacramento, and Pauline Sanderson, of Laytonville; numerous nieces and nephews and countless friends. Born a Scorpio in Healdsburg, 1942, Donna grew up on the Hiatt Ranch in Cloverdale with her two older sisters and parents, Harold Lloyd Hiatt of Cloverdale, and Marian Pauline Jensen of Guerneville. She moved to Healdsburg as a teenager and lived there for decades, working at various local establishments, including: Flaky Cream Donut Shop, Del Rio Bar, Taco Time and Branscomb Nursery. In the 1960s she owned her own beauty shop on the corner of Grant and Center Streets. Charm Beauty Shop had many loyal customers that still begged her to do their hair several years after Donna retired from that job. The 70s were a decade of change for this strong, yet secretly vulnerable, woman, her daughter Angie said. When Angie was just over a year old, Donna’s divorce to her high school sweetheart, Cecil Bauman, was finalized. She now found herself to be a single mother trying to raise her daughter the best she could. While Donna only had the one child, she was a constant mother to many. Friends would often call on her to ask advice about a sad plant in the garden or how to cook a roast. Angie described her as patient, kind and loving with a sharp wit and spunky tongue. She was compassionate but would slap you upside the head if you needed it. You know you pushed it too far when you heard her use the often-unheard, deep, gravelly part of voice to lash out a quick and powerful, “Hey! Knock it off.” Donna might point out negatives in life but not dwell on them, instead choosing to constantly look to the positives.
Towards the end, she could regularly be heard saying, “If I’d˙have known I was going to live so long, I would’ve taken better care of my body, but then I wouldn’t have had so much fun.” She was a constant saleswoman and queen of all trades, able to adapt to almost any job offered to her, be it big or small. The only job family can remember her not excelling at was selling vacation time-shares in the 80s. Here she was told to not allow customers to leave until they were crying or angry. Even though times were tough during that job, she quit after her first customer was brought to tears. She quickly became manager at the retail and food service jobs she held. As a single mom, Donna Do was known for her clever and endless ways to make money to provide for her and her young daughter. She grew an avocado tree (which she started from a pit) in their backyard and would sell avocados from the giant tree to help pay for school clothes for Angie. In the late 80s/early 90s, Donna furthered her education by attending Santa Rosa Junior College and received certificates in restaurant management and floral arranging. She was drawn more to flowers, which led to many opportunities to make flower bouquets and arrangements for many weddings and a few funerals. She would even make holiday themed floral arrangements, set up in front of her house by Giorgi Park, and sell them to passersby. When Donna Do started to get involved with plants, her daughter surprised her one Mother’s Day with the business cards Donna had been imagining. The “Do” had been changed to “Dew,” signifying her green thumb and connection to nature.
In 1997, Donna finally met the man who would become the love of her life, potter Alan Podesto. She moved to his home and ceramic studio, Architectural Ceramic Design, on the top of a steep hill overlooking Cloverdale and the beautiful Russian River Valley. Together, they turned his struggling business into a ceramics empire, offering over 30 colorful glazes on more than 200 different pieces with dozens of decoration options. She was a staple selling their bright and colorful wares at the Saturday Healdsburg Farmers’ Market, never missing a market in over 14 years until her body was too weak to handle the hard work anymore. It was Donna’s idea to sell at the Farmers’ Markets and due to this, they were able to gain many new customers from all over the world.  She was very proud of their client who was a judge in Washington D.C. She was very good at estimating the cost to ship the fragile wares and was excellent at most all weights and measures. Their most popular pottery item by far became the garlic grating bowls, for which she could immediately recite at least four different recipes using the grated garlic as the base for the sauce, dressing or marinade.
Smart words and useful wisdom were common spewing from her lips. Donna was known far and wide for her magic, not only in the garden (smack those straggly plants around to toughen them up) and art studio (second most popular item at ACD? Her quick and easy idea for shaping heart bowls) but she was especially known for her talents in the kitchen. She must have had a magic wand because she could whip up a quick meal for a crowd using very limited ingredients found in a lacking pantry. Extensive meals that to most would be a special Sunday night dinner were the nightly norm in her household. She was a whiz at taking leftovers and making them into amazing meals. You never knew what you were going to get but you always knew it was going to taste good, Angie said.
She enjoyed the view of the Geysers across the valley from their house, sighting the skydivers soar above the local airport, watching the endless birds that frequented their numerous birdfeeders and loved any music you could dance to. She was a fan of the San Francisco Giants and 49ers, and was elated when the Golden State Warriors won the championship again, having followed the game closely 40 years prior when she went into labor while the Warriors were winning the finals. Donna refused to go to the hospital until half-time. “Our monarch queen, social butterfly with the scorpion tail, master of the one-liners and watcher of us all, will be celebrated on what would have been her mother’s 100th birthday, Sunday, Jan. 24, at the Old Felta Schoolhouse (where she enrolled her daughter in preschool) in Healdsburg.” The festivities will begin at 1 p.m. but people are welcome to come by later if they can’t make it at that time. Donna was quite the partier and had wishes that music be provided by her good friends, Wendy DeWitt and Patty Mobley Detweiller. We will all gather to do our best impersonation of the famous Donna boogie as we raise a toast to “Louie.”
Christine Crosby
Christine Crosby lost her three-and-a-half year battle with breast cancer on the evening of Dec. 9, just short of her 49th birthday with her family at her side. “Christine loved the Lord, Jesus and is resting in his arms. He is her great healer, and now she hurts no more,” her husband, Gary said.
Surviving Christine are her husband, partner and friend, Gary. They were married for over 19.5 years and together for over 23 years; her 18-year-old son Benjamin; her 14-year-old daughter Mikayla; her parents Archie and Louise; her brother Scott and his wife Stephanie; and her Aunt Elaine and Uncle Mark.
Christine was born in Fremont, attended and graduated from Kennedy High School in 1985 and moved to Sonoma County with her family in 1986.
Christine loved spending time with family and friends. She enjoyed camping at Yosemite and Patrick’s Point. A music lover, she liked listening to contemporary Christian music and “Rush,” her favorite band. Her favorite place on earth was Disneyland. Christine’s family said that she loved her Lord Jesus and worked with children through the AWANA program at Hessel Church in Sebastopol and First Baptist Church in Cloverdale.
Friends and family remarked that, “Christine filled the room with laughter and love. She gave freely to all she met.” Her husband Gary said “that she cared for others right up to her final moments with us. Selfless, she cared for our two children, building them up daily with hope and love. We will all miss her lovely smile and the hope that she embodied.”
A Life Celebration will be held Saturday, Dec. 19 at 11 a.m. at First Baptist Church in Cloverdale, 450 Franklin St. Light refreshments will be provided after the service.
Jeri Mckean Walker
Jeri “The Elvis Lady” Mckean Walker, 79, died on Wednesday Dec. 2, 2015 at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. Jeri was a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She performed multiple callings in her church. Jeri was an upbeat person. She was outgoing and an active member of a community that she was well known in and was loved by all who knew her.
Jeri was born in Utah on March 6, 1936. She headed out west to California at the age of 18 to join her twin sister Marcy in the golden state. When Jeri wasn’t greeting people at Bill’s Drugs (later to become Longs Drugs) she was tracking down Elvis memorabilia of any kind. Her love of Elvis was truly evident by the name of her home “Graceland II.”
Jeri is survived by her two children; Jason in Texas, Carri in Southern California; her sister Jean in Utah; as well as her grandchildren and extended family. She is predeceased by her husband Glen Mckean, sister Marcy and her son Steve Miller.
Services will be held on Wednesday Jan. 13, 2016 at 1 p.m. at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Services are open to the public.