Zenith J. Mower, 79, of Kirk, CO passed away on February 13th during a midday nap at the Washington County Nursing Home in Akron, CO, where Zenith was a new resident. Zenith had taken a fall at Christmas time and was at the nursing home to work on regaining her strength. She was making tremendous progress and planned to return home soon.
Zenith was born on December 2, 1943 in Lacrosse, Wisconsin to Joy Orphy and Beatrice Helene (Harstad) Smalley. Zenith was the fourth child of five girls. When she was very young, her family moved to the western side of Washington State. Her parents owned businesses like the Cedardale Motel or Bett Bea’s Inn and that kept them busy, so Zenith and her younger sister, Aloha, had a lot of free time to play in the woods or Friday Creek, that was behind their house. Because of these adventures she had many exciting stories to tell.
During high school, Zenith met the love of her life. He was a sailor in the United States Navy who stationed in Oak Harbor, WA. Zenith’s parents did not approve of this sailor in the beginning. But on December 7, 1963, Larry and Zenith united in marriage. They were married for 56 years until Larry’s passing in 2020. To this marriage, Larry and Zenith were blessed with three daughters; Kimberly, Renee and Heather. Also part of their happy home was Larry’s two children, Sharan and Larry Jr, from a prior marriage. With Larry being in the Navy, this happy family had to move quite a bit. They lived in places like Washington, California, Utah and finally settled in Colorado.
Throughout her life, Zenith had a variety of jobs. Besides being a mother to five children, she was also a meat cutter, a server at a pizza joint, a night auditor at a hotel and a technician for USWest, where she typed up the ads for the yellow pages in the Denver phonebook. Zenith retired from USWest in the mid 2000’s. But also throughout her life, Zenith was a genealogist. She loved tracing her family roots and traced them all the way back to the royalty and nobles of Norway.
Hobbies that Zenith enjoyed were collecting coins and books, (She had a book on every subject), genealogy, planting trees or landscaping, doing puzzles, or playing solitaire on the computer. But her most favorite thing of all, was talking and telling her life stories to her family and friends.
Zenith was preceded in death by her parents, Joy and Beatrice Smalley. Her sisters, Lois Kane, Betty Humphrey, and Aloha Swanson. And her cherished husband, Larry Mower.
Zenith is survived by her children; Sharan and husband Charles Todd with their children Russell, Hollie and Richard; Larry Mower Jr with his children Tawnie, Breanna, Seth, Taylor, Ethan and Terence; Kimberly Mower with her children Jason, Nuquay, Tywanna, Janay, Isaiah and Elijah; Renee and husband Dennis Ringor with their children Dominique, Kaela, Nicole, Lorin and Jasmyn; and Heather Deverell with her children Darius and Sadie. She is also survived by 32 great grandchildren, along with numerous nieces and nephews. Zenith is also survived by a son named Thad Smalley, who was adopted in infancy by Zenith’s sister, Betty Humphrey. And Zenith is survived by her remaining sister, Ramona Shinn.
A funeral service was held on February 21, 2023 at 11:00 am at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Yuma, CO. Followed by an interment at the Kirk Cemetery in Kirk, CO. Baucke Funeral Home directed the arrangements.
2023-02-23