Lillian "Lee" C. Huff

Lillian C. ‘‘Lee’’ Huff, a long-time resident of Marco Island, Florida, passed away on August 13, 2018. She was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 22, 1924 to Roman and Josephine Gronowski. She was the youngest of seven brothers and sisters. As a child, she worked in the family bakery.

She enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps on her twentieth birthday in 1944. She was sent to basic training at Des Moines, Iowa. After basic training, she was assigned as a clerk typist at the Radar School at MacDill Army Air Field in Tampa, Florida. Her final active duty assignment was in the Communications Office in the Pentagon. She remembered flying from MacDill Army Air Field to Andrews Army Air Field in Washington, DC in a B-29 Bomber. She was honorably discharged from the Army on July 12, 1946, the day she married her first husband Frank Reifsnyder. For her service she was awarded a Good Conduct Medal, World War II Victory Medal, and the American Theater Ribbon. Following her time as an Army and then Air Force wife, she returned to the Chicago area.

She married Edwin Lee Huff on November 24, 1961 and settled in Bensenville, Illinois and then Hoffman Estates, Illinois. In 1965, they purchased a waterfront lot on Marco Island, Florida. She retired from Act II Jewelry in 1986. They built their dream home and permanently retired to Marco Island in 1992.

She was predeceased by her parents; brothers Steve and Edward; sisters Jeanette, Helen, Adeline ‘‘Dolly’’, and Sue; and husbands Edwin and Frank. She is survived by her children, Frank Reifsnyder Jr., John Huff, and Donna Dallmann; grandchildren Frank III, Kristen, Myles, Cassie, Rhonda, Hannah, Kyle, Kendra, and Allan; and great-grandchildren Milo, Kaylee, Louisa, Tobias, and Logan.

In 2017, she flew on a Collier County Honor Flight to Washington DC where she visited the Arlington Cemetery, the World War II Memorial, the Air Force Memorial (overlooking the Pentagon, her former duty station), the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and the Marine Corps Memorial. She would describe that day as one of the highlights of her life. Collier Lee Honor Flight is the local chapter to the National Honor Flight, a non-profit dedicated to bringing veterans to see their memorials in Washington DC at no expense to the veteran. Each chapter is 100% volunteer, raises its own funds, and organizes and schedules its own flights. In lieu of any flowers, the family requests that donations be sent in her memory to:

Collier County Honor Flight, PO Box 8001, Naples, FL 34101

Or online at https://www.collierhonorflight.org/donate