Leota Adams Waller

Beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, Leota Adams Waller passed away peacefully on May 5, 2019. She was born to Deane and Zeulah Adams in Delphi, Indiana on July 19, 1922. She graduated from Delphi High School and played trombone in the band. Following her graduation from Ball State Teachers College (now known as Ball State University) she taught her first year in Indiana and then accepted a teaching position in 1946 in the Territory of Hawai’i on the Big Island called Hawai’i. She met her husband Alvin D. “Wally” Waller who was serving in the United States Navy and they were married in Kohala on March 12, 1947. This past March Lee and Wally celebrated 72 years of marriage. As a Navy family they raised three children who were all born on naval bases where Lee either taught school on the base or in the local public schools where they were stationed. In 1949 while stationed in Key West, Florida Lee taught first grade at Poinciana Elementary and the following year, their first son David was born. Lee was recruited in 1951 to fulfill a teaching need at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and the young family of three moved to Cuba. In 1953 the Navy transfer took the family to Whiting Field in Milton, Florida where son Tom and daughter Susan were born at Pensacola Naval Hospital. The next naval transfer came in 1955 and moved the family of five to Bremerton, Washington where they lived until departing for Jacksonville, Florida in the summer of 1956. As Wally was aboard the USS Roosevelt traveling around the horn of South America to Mayport, Lee drove cross country with her three young children from Washington state to Florida and settled the family in Jacksonville. She taught first grade at Stockton Elementary from 1957-1962 when Wally retired from the Navy and they moved to Cross Creek and then Twin Lakes. Lee began teaching first and second grades at Hawthorne Elementary in 1962 and then taught kindergarten until retiring from her teaching career in June of 1978. She was a Gator and graduated with her master’s degree in Education from the University of Florida in 1966. She was proud to have all three children attend UF with two graduates (one transferred & graduated from Mass College of Art) and both grandson and granddaughter-in-law are gator grads. Lee and Wally attended many seasons of Florida Gator sports and supported Dance Alive National Ballet and enjoyed a variety of performances at the Phillips Center. Lee loved to sew and was an avid quilter, she served at the polls, volunteered at the Hawthorne school library, and was a breast-cancer survivor and loved gardening. Lee was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Hawthorne for over 50 years and in her retirement became their financial secretary. She also spent many years running their summer vacation bible school, singing in the choir, and made the Chrismons for the church Christmas tree. Lee and Wally traveled many years to Baldwin, Louisiana to work at the UMCOR Depot assembling disaster relief kits for global distribution. Her love of adventure and travel took them throughout Europe, the Holy Land, Egypt, Central and South America as well as many trips to Canada and U.S. Virgin Islands where her sons lived and repeated trips to their beloved Hawaiian islands where they met. Lee is survived by her husband Alvin “Wally” Waller of Park of the Palms, Keystone Heights, Florida, and three children: David Waller (Ursula) of West Palm Beach, Florida; Tom Waller (Allaine) of Ottawa, Ontario; and Susan Waller Scannella (Steve) of Gainesville, Florida; and Grandchildren: Joseph Scannella III (Ashley) of Gainesville, Florida; Vanessa Waller of Ottawa, Ontario; and Great-grandchild Jane Scannella of Gainesville, Florida. She was proceeded in death by her brother Jack Adams and her sister Norma Adams Beckwith. A Celebration and gathering of Leota's life will be held Saturday, July 20th, 2019 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church of Hawthorne Fellowship Hall. Casual attire (Hawaiian) is suggested as we say Aloha to Lee. Memorial donations may be made to Dance Alive National Ballet (dancealive.org); WUFT (wuft.org); UMCOR-United Methodist Committee on Relief (umc.org); and The Nature Conservancy (nature.org)

Leota Adams Waller

July 19, 1922 - May 5, 2019