Gabriel Ruedorfer Cozzaglio ~ 1929 - 2023
Submitted by paula on Sat, 03/25/2023 - 10:46am
Gabriel "Gabi" Ruedorfer Cozzaglio was born in Germany on January 29, 1929, and died on March 22, 2023. She had three older brothers and a younger sister who passed away before her.
She lived in the extreme of World War II and remembered having to be quiet when bombs were going off. Her mother would go out to protest the war and the family always prayed that she would come home and be safe. Gabi was her dad's favorite and she said he always spoiled her. She was the smallest in the family and when clothes or shoes were handed down she stuffed the shoes with paper so she could wear them.
Always active and energetic, Gabi loved to hike in the mountains and swim. When she was in her early 20s, she and a couple of her girlfriends decided to work at all of the National Parks in America so they could see the United States. When they got to the U.S. they bought an old car and went from park to park, either cleaning rooms or working wherever the park director put them. The last park was in Yosemite at the Ahwahnee Hotel. That is where she met her husband. The two of them traveled all over the world and hiked Kilimanjaro and the Himalayas. Gabi had various jobs. One was working for Ansel Adams in his studio. In Lake Tahoe, where they settled because it reminded her of her homeland, she worked in the casinos and made many friends. She lost her husband over 20 years ago.
Gabi was an active St Teresa's Catholic Church member in South Lake Tahoe. She was a founding volunteer for Bread and Broth and attended all of the church's classical concerts. She loved music and preferred that to television. She was a Cancer League Volunteer Driver and drove people all over to their appointments.
She had a special spot in her heart for Jamie Anderson and was her spirit grandmother and went to Sochi to watch her in the Olympics. This March she became a spirit great-grandmother to Jamie's baby daughter who was just recently born.
Gabi still has relatives in Germany and a flat in Rosenheim, Germany.
She will be greatly missed by all. God bless a wonderful woman. Rest in peace.
Funeral Mass will be at St Theresa Church in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. on Thursday, April 13, 2023, at 11 a.m. Reception following at Globin Hall. Her burial will be at 1 p.m. at Happy Homestead Cemetery.