Dorothy Jean Ribaudo

Dorothy was born in Seattle, WA, and while a baby moved with her family to New York. As a young teen, she and her family moved back to Washington State where she attended high school in the city of Shoreline.

After high school graduation, Dorothy worked as a shift manager for Greyhound Food and Beverage Management. Then she later attained her BA in Business Administration from Western Washington University (WWU) in Bellingham. It was at WWU that she developed special friendships that endured until her passing. After college, she backpacked across Europe using tips she gleaned from Rick Steve's "Europe through the Back Door"© program. She worked several years for the Internal Revenue Service in Seattle as a taxpayer specialist. Dorothy was employed for 17 ½ years with the Shoreline School District as a payroll specialist. She was thrilled to be back in the district and to get reacquainted with some of her favorite teachers. Very accurate with calculations and numbers, family and co-workers looked to Dorothy to sort out their bookkeeping and timekeeping errors. Her friends at work also looked up to her as a natural leader.

While working for the Shoreline School District, she studied and earned a Master of Business Management from City University. Dorothy resigned her position with the school district to take time off and had planned on exploring management positions using her degree but got sick before she could do so.

Dorothy loved her family and enjoyed hosting numerous dinner parties and holidays, and she especially loved Christmas, shopping all year long to buy thoughtfully chosen gifts for her parents, siblings and nieces and nephews, as well as for her close friends. Dorothy doted on her niece and nephews and excitedly offered to babysit. She did not even need to be asked. To her, this privilege was akin to winning the lottery! Tenacious and very goal oriented, she learned to ride a bike at a young age and eagerly sought her driver's license as soon as she turned sixteen. She embraced technology, and possessed wonderful planning, organization, and time management skills, all of which were very important to her. She often took great effort to help those in her circle to be better organized. Dorothy had a great sense of humor and often delivered unique one-liners to those close to her. She had a strong sense of justice and would take up the cause for herself and for those she felt were treated unfairly, seeing things through with great determination. And she could be stubborn at times; "it was her way or the highway."

Dorothy worked and played hard. In her leisure time she enjoyed watching Hallmark movies and home improvement shows. Dorothy frequently attended concerts and plays and listened to a variety of music. She had fun shopping at the malls and later embraced online shopping for its efficiency. She traveled on numerous occasions to New York to visit relatives and to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico with family and friends. She also had fun at Disneyland and in San Diego. She explored her heritage traveling with her family to meet relatives in Norway and in Italy. Shortly before she was diagnosed with cancer, Dorothy spent a couple of weeks in Hawaii with her aunt and sisters, sampling Kona coffee by the pool in the late morning sunshine.

Dorothy passed away January 27, 2017 after a courageous battle with cancer.

Dorothy is survived by her siblings and by numerous aunts, uncles, cousins and nieces and nephews.

Visitation will be held on Thursday, February 9, 2017 from 10:00am to 8:00pm at Evergreen Washelli Funeral Home, 11111 Aurora Ave N, Seattle, WA 98133. Funeral Mass will be held on Friday, February 10, 2017 at 11:00am with viewing one hour prior at St. Mark Catholic Church, 18033 15th Pl NE, Shoreline, WA 98155 followed by a reception at church, followed by committal at Evergreen Memorial Park, 11111 Aurora Avenue N, Seattle, WA 98133.

Dorothy Jean, our "jelly bean", we miss you and look forward to seeing you in heaven!