Seraphine Elizabeth Rinaudo Coleman

Seraphine, or Finnie as she liked to be called, was born to Martin Rinaudo, Sr. and Nora Rinaudo November 17, 1931 in Shreveport, Louisiana. She was one of 10 children; five brothers and four sisters, one, Teresa, of whom she was twinned. Shortly thereafter, her parents moved the family to Baton Rouge, La where Seraphine excelled in academics, graduating from Baton Rouge High School in 1947 at the young age of 16. She later met Kenneth William Coleman in 1951 and were shortly married soon after on August 9, 1952. The newlywed couple quickly moved to Los Angeles, California in 1953 where Seraphine gave birth to their first and only child, Catherine, born January 4, 1954.

Highly skilled in mathematics, Seraphine began working for the U.S. Geological Survey from the 1950s until the late 1960s where she attained the position of GS11. This was considered quite an accomplishment given she did not have a college degree. During the 1950s and 1960s, she and her husband owned and operated apartment houses in Los Angeles. In 1971, they decided they were fed up with land lording and sold the apartment complex and moved their small family to Orange County to begin a new chapter in their lives.

From the late 1970s to 2012, Ken and Finnie owned and operated a financial investment business, which published financial and investment related newsletters. As part of their business, Seraphine traveled throughout the U.S. assisting her husband at financial seminars where he often spoke. They lived in Orange County until October 1987 when they moved to Carlsbad, California where they lived until March 2016. Eventually, Ken and Finnie were settled into an assisted living home in Escondido, Ca. where she later passed on November 8, 2016.

Finnie is survived by her husband, Kenneth; her daughter, Catherine Little, and son-in-law, Dennis Little; her grandson, Joseph Chambers; her brother, John Rinaudo; her sister, Lenora Wilkinson; and many other nephews and nieces. She is remembered as being social and vibrant who loved to dance and make new friends, but, at the same time, she was a no-nonsense woman who took everything she did seriously and with follow-through. She was very intelligent, but delightfully humble. Seraphine was a devout catholic and very family oriented. Family was everything to her. She will be sorely missed.