home in St. Louis, M O. Funeral services will be held at Hoffmeister Colonial on Thursday, November 8,
4pm - 8pm. Funeral Mass will be at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church on Friday, November 9, 2018
at 10:00 am, at 5020 Rhodes Avenue at Kingshighway Blvd.
Gina was born on June 30, 1941 in St. Louis, MO to Grace M. (Mulligan) and Lee O. Soete. She was the
7 th of 10 children. She attended Blessed Sacrament grade school, graduated from Rosati-Kain High
School in 1959 and attended Harris Teachers’ College.
Gina loved art and music. She loved to paint and draw and sang with the R-K Madrigals. She acted in
many school plays as well.
She went to work as a cosmetics saleswoman for Revlon at Stix Baer & Fuller and Scruggs Vandervoort
Barney department stores. Throughout her life, she loved to work. At her core, it was always about
helping people. She volunteered to teach reading at St. Thomas of Aquin. She took a job at The Brass
Rail in Clayton, cooking, baking, and managing the catering business. She then was offered a job at the
7-Up Company to be the Consumer Hotline Representative. Later, she moved to the Internal Revenue
Service as a Problem Resolution Manager and finally after “retiring ,” worked part-time at the Saint Louis
Science Center in Membership and the gift shop for the past 10 years until March of this year.
Another passion of Gina’s was reading. “If you can read, you can do anything”. She instilled this love of
learning in her children. Almost every Saturday she would take them to the Carpenter Branch Library
where they would max out their library card limits. It was then usually followed by a trip to the Zoo, Art
Museum or the Science & Natural History Museums.
Gina loved to travel. Some of her favorite places were New York, London, and especially Florence. Her
travels always involved seeing shows, visiting cathedrals, art museums and sampling all of the food. She
also loved being in nature; camping, fishing and visiting the National Parks.
Gina loved her children and her family and lived a full life. She taught us to be kind to everyone, be
generous with what you have and always look on the bright side, no matter what.
Gina was preceded in death by her parents, Grace and Lee Soete, and her siblings, Peggy Ryan, Mary
Kist, Tom Soete, Joe Soete, Bill Soete Sr., and Jim Soete.
She is survived by her children Jackie Mollet (Jennifer Peters) ; Matthew (Tina) Lakin and family,
grandson Alex Lakin and granddaughter Rylie Bequette; Julia Lakin; sisters Barbara Soete, S.S.N.D., Rita
Soete, S.S.N.D., and Cathy Soete (Amy Fister) and many beloved friends and family.
In lieu of flowers, donations in her name can be made to the library or animal rescue organization of
your choice.
