Mellodee Stewart

MelloDee Stewart, 71, of Grants Pass died Wednesday, April 7, 2010, at her home.

A memorial service will be held Monday, April 12 at 4 p.m. at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Stake Center, Williams Highway. Private interment will be at Pleasant Valley Cemetery. Hull & Hull Funeral Directors are in charge of the arrangements.

MelloDee was born February 13, 1939, in Phoenix, Arizona, to Esther and Henry Stewart. She moved with her family to Utah in 1944, then later to Hugo, Oregon, in 1955, graduating from Grants Pass High School in 1957.

On November 25, 1958, she married Theodore Lengel in Oakland, California. They had seven children. Their first son was born in San Francisco, California. They moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, having five more children, and moved to Grants Pass, Oregon, in 1972 where their youngest son was born. Ted and MelloDee were divorced in 1981, and she moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, and raised her three youngest children as a single mother. She worked for the US Attorney's office for several years until her retirement in 2002. She moved back to Grants Pass in 2002 and was diagnosed with leukemia in 2006. After three years of remission, she was diagnosed with relapse in late 2009. She was a dedicated member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for all the years of her life.

Survivors include three daughters, Tammy Maahs of Springfield, Oregon; Terry Hudson and Rani Tedsen of Grants Pass; four sons, Rick Lengel of Grants Pass; Brett Lengel, Doug Lengel, and Kerry Lengel, all of Arizona; two brothers, Thomas Stewart and Richard Stewart of Arizona, one half-sister, Nancy Dollarhide of White City, Oregon, and a half-sister, Alicia Wood of Phoenix, Arizona; and seven grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her mother and father.