Louise Lillian Moore

When asked what she wanted to be, Lulu always replied, "A plain, ordinary woman!"

At twelve, she worked in a bakery; later, in banking, restaurant, and clerical positions. At seventeen, with WWII raging and the outcome unknown, she married and started a family.

After her newborn, Christopher, died, she moved with her husband and small daughter to serve two years as a housemother at Children's Village of Livonia, MI, a United Methodist home for abandoned and displaced youngsters.

Later, when her younger daughter returned from Cold War school drills asking if the family needed a bomb shelter, she replied, "No, because our neighbors would all be dead, and families survive within communities."

She stunned her physician employer by teaching herself shorthand in nine days, and memorizing the names and faces of 1,100 patients.

A single mother during the Bay of Pigs crisis, she went outside with her hands full of tulip bulbs, looked around her sunlit garden, and realized the world might be obliterated before the shoots broke the surface.

Then she got down on her knees and planted them anyway.

After moving to Haywood County in 1973, she helped a young Korean/American mother, the bride of a local serviceman, learn English: they read duplicate books from Wilder's "Little House on the Prairie" over the telephone.

She and her artist husband, Wm. J. H. Moore, created sets for community theatre. An award-winning artist herself, Louise donated paintings to Waynesville's Good Samaritan Clinic, and educational triptychs for Haywood schools.

Her talent and energy transformed every house she occupied into a beautiful and extraordinary home -- but the place her friends found loveliest was her Christ-embracing, boundless heart.

She is survived by her daughters, Carole Kronberg of Detroit, MI and Janet Kronberg of the home; her siblings, Richard Mann (Sally) of Concord, OH, Gloria Mills, of Oxford, MI, and Elliot Mann of Springfield, VA; nine nieces and nephews and their spouses and descendants; and many loved friends.

Per her request, there will be no services. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, or whatever cause the giver deems worthy.

Garrett Funeral Home is assisting the family. www.garrettfuneralsandcremations.com