august_ 2004

Grace Belden, 86, of Tarpon Springs, Fla. passed away at HCR Manor Care, Dunedin, Fla. on July 7, 2004. She was the daughter of Charles and Heliodora Belden, and the sister of Charles E. Belden, Adolph Belden, and Blanche B. Hopkins (all deceased), and sisters Margaret May and Lola Dotson.

Gerald Brown, 67, of Von Ormy, Texas, passed away peacefully on July 5, 2004 at the Vitas Hospice Center in San Antonio, Texas following a long battle with cancer. He lived in Panama for 20 years and worked as a police officer for the U.S. government until his retirement in 1982.

Leslie Barbara “Barb” Dwyre, 84, of St. Petersburg died July 20, 2004 at home. She moved here in 1968 from Panama. She married her husband in Hawaii and accompanied and supported him during 34 years with the U.S. Air Force. This included extensive foreign service throughout all of Central and South America and Formosa.

Louis J. Fattorosi, 76, of Lakewood, N.J. died on May 1, 2004 at Ocean Medical Center, Brick, N.J. He taught high school before moving to the Canal Zone in 1952. There he taught at Cristobal High School and Florida State University, Canal Zone branch. He was President of the Teachers Union from 1974 to 1978. He retired from the Canal in 1978 after leading a spirited opposition to the U.S. government turnover of the Canal Zone to Panama.

Mary Alice (Hicks) Kelley, 68, of Houston, Texas passed away on April 1, 2004 from complications of Myesthenia Gravis. She was born in Gorgas Hospital and graduated from Balboa High School in 1953. After college and marriage, she returned to the Canal Zone in 1959 until 1962.

Walter Neil Lenneville, 55, of Dallas, Texas, died suddenly on June 27, 2004 of natural causes. He went to the Canal Zone when he was one year old and was a graduate of Balboa High School and attended Canal Zone College. He worked with the Schools Division and was active in the Little Theater Guild in the Canal Zone until 1983.

Lorraine A. Smith of Pensacola, Fla. passed away July 2, 2004 at her home. Lorraine and her family resided in the Panama Canal Zone where she was employed with the U.S. Army Tropic Test Facility in Coco Solo. In 1979 she and her husband Gerald, a PanCanal pilot, retired to Winchester, Tenn. until 2001.

Myrtle P. Sparks of St. Augustine, Fla. passed away September 11, 2003 in her sleep. Myrtle was born in Osceola Mills, Pa. and she went to Panama in 1942 and lived there until 1972. She worked at the Rainbow Commissary, Administration Building, and finally at the Balboa License Section.

Rita S. (Laurie) Will, 85, of El Cajon, Calif. passed away on May 15, 2004. She went to Panama as an infant and retired after nearly 30 years of service with the Panama Canal Company. Upon retirement she was the assistant manager at the Coco Solo Retail Store.