WADE, Lila Lee

The Verde Independent, Cottonwood, Arizona Tuesday, February 11, 2014 Lila Lee Wade, 82 of Cottonwood, passed away on February 7, 2014. Born in Artesia, California on July 29, 1932 Lila Lee Owsley came into this world. She was the apple of her Daddy's eye. During this time, her mom and dad worked and lived at the California State Mental Hospital, which meant that Lila could not live with her parents. Boarded out, her mother and father paid strangers to take care of her. She did not have a happy first couple of years in this world. When her Grandmother Dodd found out that she was boarded to strangers Lila went to live with her; she was eight at the time. In her preteens, she took ballet, tap dance classes and ballroom dance classes. She hated ballet; the toe shoes made her feet bleed. Her favorite dance was tap, and the shoes were cute. To help pass the time in between parental visits, she learned to bury herself in books. She discovered new worlds in the written word. At the age of 15, she went to live with her parents. The hospital did not require them to live on property anymore. They purchased a house in La Habra, California. One afternoon they went bowling, Lila had forgotten her bowling shoes, she begged her mom to let her bowl in her socks. Her mom allowed her to bowl in her socks and Lila slipped, fell and broke her collarbone. Lila never forgave herself; she caused her father to yell at her mother. This is probably why when she said no, there was no changing her mind. She met a boy; his name was George Mabes, as she put it he was the bees' knees. At the age of seventeen, she was married to George and had four beautiful children; Michael Terry, Debra Marie, Patricia Lee and Susan Dee. She divorced George, and later married Lynn Sanders and had a beautiful baby girl, Tracey Lynn. However, the heart wants what the heart wants, and she divorced Lynn and remarried George and had two beautiful children Tate C and Kelley. The relationship with George was finished and she divorced him and much later married Ray Griffin and had her baby boy Marlin Hugh, who she loved. She worked at an underwear factory; she was quality control. It was her responsibility to make sure the product met standards. Her grandmother Dodd taught her to sew and to do it very well. If she rejected the product, it was not delivered to the retail store. She worked there until the factory closed. Her expertise in quality control was what brought her to work in a computer chip factory before personal computers. Lila was so good at testing the quality of the computer chip that she was asked to move to Hong Kong and head up quality control there. This was an offer that she took very seriously; she thought about it for several weeks. She rejected the offer; she could not leave her family, being an only child, family was very important to her. In 1989 she met Charles Wade and married him shortly after. At this time of her life, Charles "Chuck" gave her a life that she could relax, travel and bowl. Her and Chuck were on bowling leagues and she loved to watch Chuck participate in competition bowling. Lila had 8 children; 16 grandchildren; 24 great-grandchildren and 4 great-great-grandchildren. She had a good life and on February 7, 2014 at 4 a.m., she returned home. We love you mom and we will miss you. Services will be held on Wednesday, February 12, 2014 at 1 p.m. at Westcott Funeral Home in Cottonwood. An online guestbook is available to sign at www.westcottfuneralhome.com Information provided by survivors.