Lillie Lee Ohano

Lillie was the strongest, most direct person I know, she fought for everything she had. She was from Oklahoma but her parents moved to Fresno, California when she was about 9 years old. They were what Lillie, called; “dirt farmers”. She told her children stories of how poor they were and how she had to wear old clothes to school that caused the other children to tease her. She was the last child born to her parents, John Henry Peden and Rhoda Haley Roach so she grew up playing with her nieces and nephews. She maintained a close relationship with her brother, Louis Peden and her sister, Bessie Tackla. Lillie loved taking evening walks with Bessie and her kids. She had a wonderful sense of humor and was fiercely protective of her family. She loved dancing to country music but also loved Elvis Presley music. Doris Day and Elvis Presley movies would melt her heart! Reading romance magazines and watching her soap operas was a favorite past-time, which she referred to as her “treasured me time.” With rearing five children very close in age there was little time for Lillie to have to herself. She worked hard alongside her husband Andy in the fields, which caused quite an uproar back then, since women weren’t really a welcome site in the fields. Her daughter Patty recalls Lillie saying, that “dad needed her help and the other workers could keep their opinions to themselves.” Sadly, Lillie’s husband became very ill and the family had to live in their car for a short time, but Lillie kept holding our family together until finally Andy improved slowly and their lives became stable enough to live in a nice home. She was a trail blazer, you see her first marriage didn’t work out, leaving her with 2 small little girls, Marlene and Linda, but fate would have her meet Andy and have three more children, Julian, Patricia and Andrea. Andy was from the Philippines, born in 1904; Lillie was born April 29, 1932, 28 years younger than her husband. Lillie was Irish, Scottish and Dutch, and they had a difficult life because mixed marriages were not acceptable in 1950, so she withstood the looks and whispers and remained proud of her family and choices. She loved Andy forever, even after death took him from her Aug. 1999. She was lonely and lost without him but found love in the lord’s arms and a family in her church friends. Lillie would speak of them so often. She was strong and independent but in 2012 she needed help so her church family helped move her in with family. Lillie loved sitting in the front and back yards looking at the flowers and watching the dogs play. She loved, In and Out Burger so much that her daughter Patty and husband Kenny had to take her there almost every day. After work she and Patty would have warm toasted bread together and talk about the “good ol’ days.” When Patty retired, they were lucky enough to be able to take Lillie back to Oklahoma to visit relatives. Lillie got to see the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas, which Lillie enjoyed so much and dreamt of going back again. When Lillie moved to Lake Isabella she fell in love with sitting on the porch just looking at the hills and flowers. She continued this routine until February 2015 when she needed major surgery, which sadly left her bed ridden. She stayed strong, but in April 2018 Lillie suffered a heart attack, that put her in the hospital on her 86th birthday. Her family brought her home on May first and Lillie passed quietly in her sleep on May 11th, 2018, at her home in Lake Isabella, CA. Lillie is now resting in God’s arms alongside her Husband Andy and Daughter Marlene.

Lillie leaves behind 4 children: Daughter-Linda and her husband Jose, Son- Julian and his wife Tina, Daughter-Patty and husband Kenny, and Daughter-Andrea. She also leaves behind many grandchildren, great grandchildren, and even great-great grandchildren. She loved each and every one of them.