Rosalind (Roz) Kay Ellifritz, age 67, passed away unexpectedly and peacefully of heart failure at her home in Winnemucca Nevada on June 25, 2020.
Rosalind was born in September of 1952 at St. Vincent Hospital in Portland, Oregon and was the fifth child of seven to Harold and Maxine (Bush) Voelker of Astoria, Oregon.
Roz grew up on the banks of Cullaby Lake, just a couple of miles from the Pacific Ocean’s Sunset beach.
She graduated from Warrenton High School in 1970. She was extremely active in extra curricula sports including volleyball, softball and cheerleading, and was eventually crowned “Queen of Cullaby Lake”.
After graduation she continued her studies at Clatsop County Community Business College.
In 1979, on what was supposed be just a short stay, Roz traveled to Hawthorne to visit one of her sisters, where she soon realized that she loved the sun, more than the rain and fog of the Oregon coast. She decided to remain in Nevada with her 4-year-old daughter, whereby happen stance, she met future husband, Don, while he was working as a lineman, on a roving construction crew, for Nevada Bell Telephone Company. While neither Roz nor Don were looking for a spouse, fate has a way of intervening, as they married not long after, in Winnemucca, where they remained and raised their family of 3 daughters.
Rosalind was from the era that if you needed something you worked for it.
She always held gainful employment while still managing a family. Nothing was ever beneath or above her dignity and she never looked down on anyone.
She had a plethora of vocations before finding her career niche in graphic design.
Roz’s passion for graphic design earned her several awards from Nevada Press Association before moving on to start her own free-lance design business under the name of MaxAd advertising, (in honor of her mother).
She continued to pursue graphic design until Don’s retirement, after which, she began her next hobby of love, collecting and repurposing antiques and furniture items, with the intent to sell, as “Rozzies Relics”.
However, she never could part with her completed masterpieces.
She was a social, lively, and hard-working woman with a quick smile and great sense of humor. She enjoyed living life through the simple pleasures; gardening, home decor, back yard cookouts, yard sales looking for that perfect addition to her yard art, lake days, and chili cook offs in paradise valley, she especially loved dressing up the kids for Fifty’s Fever/Hot August Nights, her doo-wop music, working the concessions at the NNRA good times street drags and cruising in their Hurst Olds with the T-tops off during the dogdays of summer, and competing in her bowling league.
In more recent years, she became renowned for her snack treats she would create for her Granddaughters pre-school, seeking out the most elaborate creations from witches’ hats, to cupcake turkeys.
While Roz really disliked winter, she also just couldn’t wait until it was time to decorate for the holidays, knowing that soon her flock would come home.
She loved traveling anywhere in her motorhome with husband Don (the driver), especially the yearly family trips north, boat races, drag races in Lakeview or Fallon or just a weekend at Rye patch. She was happiest surrounded by family and friends, games being played, the music playing, and a cold drink in her hand.
She relished a good argument especially when it came to Don and DIY projects.
Roz was a self-reliant, strong willed woman with a certain tenacity about her. As life’s many events came, be it blessings or adversity she took on each with a level of self-confidence that few possess. After the birth of her third daughter, Roz met the new challenge of Cystic Fibrosis, and immediately become a devoted caretaker and fierce advocate.
When she realized, that even with the best insurance, there was going to be an insurmountable financial burden for Tabitha’s double lung transplant, she didn’t give up. She rallied an all-volunteer army and created the fundraiser, “Time for Tabitha” a local crab feed that became a huge success. Roz believed in organ donation and reminded people to please get the facts and consider becoming a donor.
As with all of us, Roz was not without her faults, although few come to mind.
She loved to tell jokes, but they all ended the same, with a burst of laughter, before she could ever get the punch line out, followed by “don’t you get it?” The audience never heard the entire joke, but the eruption of community laughter was never lost.
Her favorite multi-tool was always the sharpest knife from the block. It had many purposes, but she found it served her best as a weed remover
When the day was done, she loved sitting on the front porch with Donnie watching the last rays of the Nevada sunset. While she was not born in Nevada, she loved Nevada and was proud to be called a desert rat from Nevada.
We will always miss you and always love you Mom.
“Granma, I know your heart broke and you are in heaven, but can you ask god to let you come home now” Emma.
Rosalind’s wishes were to be “scattered to the wind”. Then everybody has a party.
Rosalind is survived by her husband of 38 years, Donnie; daughters, Amy Renee Killion (Reno); Karina Lynn Ellifritz (Winnemucca), Tabitha Marie (Cory) Hawkins (Reno); her favorite granddaughter, Emma Dawn (Winnemucca)
Sisters, Leanne (late husband Ken) Kirby (Astoria, Ore.) Georgia (Ray) (Junction City, Ore.) Evelyn (late husband Glenn) Austin (Castle Rock Wa.); Lucinda Lalonde (Palm Springs, Ca); Heidi (Woody) Koenig) (Mill City, Ore); and a brother, Oley (Serena) Olson (Warrenton, Ore.) Plus numerous nieces and nephews.
She is preceded in death by her father, Harold and mother, Maxine and Grandparents, George and Anne Bush.
Due to the pandemic, an outdoor celebration is being planned tentative at the NNRA racetrack for latter part of August and will posted in the paper and Facebook.
In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation at www.cff.org/donate.
