Lois C. (Morton) Letzgus

Lois C. Letzgus, 94, passed away on Tuesday, January 28, 2020, at Aspen Grove in Lambertville, Michigan.

   She was born Lois Catharine Morton on September 6, 1925, in Turnersville, New Jersey. She grew up in Camden, New Jersey, where she graduated from Camden High School in 1943 and where she met her future husband, Charles. Because her lifelong love, Frank Sinatra, was already married to someone else, she and Charles wed on October 18, 1943. Their marriage endured until Charles’s death in 1999.

   After World War II, Lois and Charles moved to Arlington, Virginia, where Lois worked at the Pentagon and served as secretary to Gen. Nathan Twining, chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force. She paused her career to rear her children. During that time, she and the family relocated to Jackson, Mississippi; Austin, Texas; White Plains, New York; Okemos, Michigan; and ultimately, in 1969, to Sylvania, Ohio.

   Lois returned to work at Sylvania High School (now Northview) where she managed the Media Center until 1974. That was the year that she and Charles opened Custard’s Last Stand, the much loved and fondly remembered family restaurant in Haymarket Square in downtown Sylvania. They kept Custard’s until 1984, by which time Lois was working as an investigator in the tax offset department at the Lucas County Child Support Enforcement Agency.

   After Charles’s death, Lois continued to work at CSEA until her retirement at age 78 in 2003. She spent the next ten years as a volunteer for a variety of organizations, including Flower Hospital; Sylvania Public Library; the Lucas County Board of Elections; what is now the ProMedica medical records office on Central Avenue; and the Valentine Theatre.

   She was an active resident at West Park Place senior living center in Toledo from 2012 until she moved to the memory care facility at Aspen Grove in January 2017.   

   Lois will always be remembered as a loving mother; a vivacious, witty, intelligent, opinionated, strong and courageous woman; and, as she herself put it, “precious and a delight to wake up to.” 

   She was preceded in death by her parents, Nellie (Williams) and Edwin Leslie Morton, and her husband, Charles. She is survived by her children, Chip (Michael) of Riverside, California, and Kim (Rodney) Orzechowski of Sylvania; her granddaughters, Audrey and Claire Orzechowski; and her great-granddaughters, Mia and Keirah Yates.   

   A visitation and celebration of Lois’s life will be held at Reeb Funeral Home, 5712 Main Street, Sylvania, on Thursday, January 30, 2020, from 4:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m.   

   The family wishes to thank the staff at Aspen Grove and ProMedica Hospice for their kindness and loving care.   

   In lieu of flowers, Lois wished for donations to be made (to the fullest extent allowable by law) to the Democratic National Committee (secure.actblue.com). Online condolences

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