Edith A. Zakel

Zakel (Graedtke), Edith Amanda
Age 91, died Friday the 13th of September, 2019. Born the 3rd of 10 children on February 23, 1928 in Lithuania, Edith emigrated from Western Europe to New York City in 1952, married in 1953, then came to Dayton in 1954, where she lived for more than 50 years until her final years in independent and assisted living at the Springfield Masonic Home. For 48 years, until his death in 2001, she was married to Henry Zakel, whom she met on a US naval immigration ship crossing the Atlantic. For much of her time in Dayton, she belonged to St. John’s United Church of Christ downtown. She loved singing and dancing—either to herself or along with the “German program on the radio”—and, with her husband on the dance floor, became part of a graceful duo, dancing the night away as lifelong members of Dayton Liederkranz-Turner German club. Edith also enjoyed every kind of travel: Her kids saw America from the many car trips she organized, often transporting sleeping children in the middle of the night to makeshift beds in the back of the station wagon to “beat the traffic.” She also loved flying whenever possible, but her true love was cruise ships: She only went on a few trips, but when she wasn’t on a cruise ship, she was reminiscing about the last one or daydreaming of the next. Raising her three young children, she was loving and encouraging, taking them often to the library, and providing a nurturing and unstructured environment to play, learn and grow. As her children became teenagers, she always scraped together, on their modest income, the means and time to support their many extracurricular activities—band, orchestra, cheerleading, theater, computers, baseball—resulting in well-rounded, successful children of first-generation immigrants. During the economic downturn of the 80s, she pitched in when she could, delivering neighborhood advertising flyers and providing caregiving services. She was proud of her sewing skills, putting together all her own ensembles and sewing (and embellishing) many of her children’s clothes. Her green thumb was extraordinary: Her house was replete with plants she grew from nothing, and her yard was filled with snapdragons, bleeding hearts, fir trees and boundary shrubs. She loved baking Betty Crocker box cakes, assembling lovely gingerbread houses (ironically inedible due to their construction materials), regularly watching nameless TV shows (“Channel 7 at eight” or “Channel 22 at ten”), and drinking pots of coffee to energize her day. In the right mood, she was often filled with the joy of life, dancing and singing songs around the house; but, in many ways, the ghosts of what she saw and survived, growing up in the brutal circumstances leading up to, during and after World War II, haunted her entire life.

She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law Pete and Linda Zakel of Fremont, California; daughter and son-in-law Lori Zakel and Mark Knowles of Springfield and grandchildren Megan of Los Angeles and Marissa of Springfield; and son and daughter-in-law Ken Zakel and Angie DeBrosse of Kettering. She is also survived by sister and brother-in-law Alma and Bob Whitaker of Miamisburg; sister Trudy Smith of upstate New York; sister-in-law Linda Gradtke of Beavercreek; brother and sister-in-law Manfred and Maggie Graedtke of Texas; sister Karin Neaderbaomer of Los Angeles; and many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her husband of 48 years, Henry (who she often said she missed dearly) and five siblings, including Rudy Gradtke of Beavercreek and Johanna (Hanni) Seifert of West Carrollton, Edith’s best friend. Edith and Hanni talked daily, mostly in German sprinkled with English; listening, you knew the subject was changing or the call was ending when Edith said, in either German or English, “Oh, well, what can you do.”

The family will receive friends and family at Westbrock Funeral Home, 1712 Wayne Ave., Dayton, Ohio 45410, from 4 to 6 p.m. on Friday, September 20, followed by a brief service at 6 p.m. Burial, at Dayton Memorial Park Cemetery, will be private.


Memorial contributions may be made to the Dr. Lori Zakel Scholarship Fund at Sinclair Community College Foundation, 444 W. Third St., Dayton Ohio 45402, or Hospice of Dayton, 324 Wilmington Ave., Dayton, Ohio 45420.