Rosa "Sue" Elexa White Gill

Rosa Elexa White was born in a farmhouse on the corner of Dale and Lampson in Garden Grove on May 18, 1921. She was the second daughter born to Glodine and Walter White. Her father farmed that area. She was named after her grandmother Rosetta James.The family moved to Talbert then Huntington Beach and then Long Beach, where she attended schools. She witnessed the 1933 earthquake She saw her school fall, and their home moved off the foundation. They lived outside until things were restored to livable order.

She graduated from Grough Business College, and worked secretarial duties in Long Beach.

She worked at the Navy Hospital in 1944 in Long Beach, California in the Red Cross office dispatching telegrams for wounded service men to their families. That’s when she met Dominick Gill. She sent his telegram home to his parents telling them he was wounded and where he was. They were not allowed to give the servicemen their names, so he called her Sue. They dated until he was sent home to Connecticut. When he asked her to marry him, she took a train to New York and then on to Connecticut.Sue and Dom were married in 1946. He came from a large Catholic Italian family. This was very different from her small family in Long Beach. She became a Catholic and enjoyed that all her life.

In 1947, I, Katherine Susan Gill, was born. Their first and only child. After my father’s parents passed away we moved to Long Beach, California in 1953. In 1955, we moved to a brand new home near the orange groves in Garden Grove. Sue was back in the city of her birth. She stayed there until 2007, when she moved to Charlou Guest Home in Anaheim.

Dad’s side of the family called her Sue, and Mom’s side of the family called her Elexa. So depending who she was with, her name could change from Sue to Elexa. For legal purposes, she was known as Rosa. She enjoyed the difference in names.

She loved sewing. She made my clothes growing up and did a beautiful job. She loved knitting, crocheting, and gardening. She was very good at flower arranging. We had many vases with beautiful flowers around the house. She helped me with a floral project in a fifth grade class. "We" won an award for it. She was also very good at drawing, and loved her cats.

She enjoyed cooking and learned many Italian recipes from my grandmother and aunts in Connecticut. She had many talents, one of which was teaching me to drive in an empty parking lot, she also taught my aunt in Connecticut.

She enjoyed traveling. We used to drive back and forth to Connecticut in the summer. She took me to Hawaii twice, and had a wonderful time. We also drove around England, Ireland, and Scotland. Mom and Dad attended his Navy reunions all around the US. Each year was a different state. She enjoyed these, and was very proud of his Navy service. The blouse she is now wearing had been mine. I grew out of it and gave it to her. It was a favorite, and she wore it to these Navy reunions.

She regularly gave blood up to the time she began taking medications. Mom’s friend had a deaf grand daughter. She asked us to go with her to learn sign language, and we did. Mom is the reason we are with the Catholic Deaf Community today. She loved attending these masses with the deaf community.

She was very adventuresome. I drove and she rode on the back of my Dad’s moped from Garden Grove to El Toro Marine Base to see if I could save gas going to work. We tried it, and after taking three hours round trip, we decided "not a good idea". We rode our new bikes from Garden Grove to Sunset Beach on our first day. She made it, but we only did it once.

We used to go fishing. On one trip to the Inland Lake around Laguna, Dad, Mom, Scott and I were fishing. We realized that Mom was the only one with a fishing license, and the Fish and Game Officer was around checking fishing licenses. The three of us quickly left Mom with our fishing poles. There she was with four poles in the water. An avid fisher woman.

She had a great laugh, and beautiful smile which everyone saw quite a lot of.

October 19, 2006, she went to lunch with her very good friend of over 50 years, Marian Gautreau. When they returned, Marian made sure Mom was settled on the couch before she left. Later the phone rang, and Mom fell over a small foot stool and broke her hip. After her surgery she was home nine months. She couldn’t stay alone, and it became too hard for me to safely take care for her. In June of 2007, she moved to Charlou Guest Home in Anaheim. She loved it there. Everyone was extremely nice to her, especially Erlinda, who took care of her the whole time she was there. Mom loved her and all of them, and told them many times. She was a very happy woman, and shared that with others. October, 2013, she came down with shingles, and at 92 it was very difficult for her. After a few days of breathing problems, she peacefully passed away on November 6, 2013 at 7:45am. I had told her niece Bobbie was coming from the East for a visit, and after she saw Bobbie she was happy.

Ninety two years is a long life and she lived it well. She left many people happy to have known her. Ninety-two years is still not enough, and we miss her.

Sole Family Survivors:

Katherine McEldowney (daughter), Scott McEldowney (son-in-law), Barbara Hughes (niece), Carole Hughes (niece), Florence Gill (sister-in-law), Larry Gill (nephew), Rosa Gill (niece), Richard Gill (nephew), Kathy Gill (niece), Katherine Pajor (niece), Aurelia Charest (niece), Cathy McLellan (niece), Clem Giglio (nephew), Larry Gill (nephew), Maryann Gill (niece), Anne Lattanzio (niece), Robert LeBoeuf, (cousin), Kathy LeBoeuf, (cousin), Janelle LeBoeuf, (cousin), Ronald White (cousin), Gaylen White (cousin), Elizabeth Consuelo (cousin) and Rose Consuelo (cousin).