Lorraine P. Riddell

Lorraine Paula Riddell, 89, of Salinas passed away late Monday night, July 15, 2019 from Parkinson’s disease. Lorraine Bell was born in Baltimore, MD, to Paul and Henrietta Bell, joining her older brother Henry. After a short time in Baltimore, during which her father died of complications from injuries sustained in World War One, the family moved to the smaller town of Laurel just outside of Baltimore. After graduating from school, she held a number of jobs, including clerk, secretarial, sales and waitress. She married her first husband shortly after graduating and had her first daughter, Barbara Ann Batyi. The marriage was brief, ending in divorce. Not long after that, She met and married William (Bill) Riddell in 1952. Bill was in the Army, so Lorraine and Barbara began living the military life, traveling from base to base to base, including a few years in Japan, where Bill was stationed during the Korean War. Bill and Lorraine added three children to the family, all born on Army bases; daughters Diane and Sharon were born at Fort Benjamin Harrison, in Indianapolis, IN and son William (Bill) followed at Fort Ord, Marina, CA. Bill then retired from the Army and the family moved to Salinas, CA. Glad to be out of the military life, Lorraine settled into being a wife and mother. She was active in the PTA and volunteering at the various schools and was a Den Mother for son Bill’s Cub Scouts. She was also active with her church, working part time in the office and delivering recordings of sermons to the church’s shut-ins. As the kids got older, she returned to the work force, doing clerical and date entry work for the Social Security Administration office in Salinas. After retiring from there, she continued her volunteering, adding Meals on Wheels to her list. She was preceded in death by her daughter Barbara Batyi in December of 2000, from non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and just four years ago, her husband of 62 years, Bill, who died suddenly in May of 2015. She is survived by her daughters Diane, of Salinas, CA; Sharon Teague (David), of Coalinga, CA and her son’s family, Bill (Mirna) and their sons, Nathan (18) and Ryan (16) of Greenfield, CA. Lorraine requested a simple graveside service for family and friends; it will be held Monday, July 22, 2019 at 1:00 pm at Garden of Memories Cemetery, 850 Abbott St. If you feel like honoring Lorraine, please consider donating to Central Coast Visiting Nurse Association and Hospice or your local VNA; the Central Coast’s VNA Hospice services were invaluable to her family in her last years.