Oct. 2, 1936 ~ Feb. 17, 2017
Delores Jean Zibull, 80, passed away at her home in Carson City on February 17, 2017, surrounded by family and friends after a brief but hard-fought battle with cancer.
Born in Meridian, Mississippi to Mark and Elline Stuart, she moved to Weed, California when she was 16 years old. There she met and married Kenneth Zibull in 1957. They had two children before moving to Carson City in 1969.
She worked for 36 years in the accounting department of the State of Nevada, Department of Corrections, retiring in 2006. She saw this department grow from only her and one other account clerk, to dozens of accounting personnel. During this long tenure, she developed life long friendships and talked about her co-workers as if they were family. She created, and loved to plan and organize, a very special get-a-way vacation each and every year (for 24 consecutive years) called the “Annual Prison Escape”, where 40 or more of her co-workers, family and friends would all travel to Las Vegas for up to 2 weeks of fun and relaxation.
After retiring, bargain shopping and planning vacations became her passion. She vacationed in Florida, California, Kentucky (Kentucky Derby), New Orleans, Portland, Arizona, Mississippi, Texas and Mexico. But, the highlight of her vacation planning was her yearly trip to Hawaii, where she would spend at least one month during each of the last 10 years of her life.
At home, she was the boss. Family would jokingly call her “the warden”, because she ran the house, and everyone in it. Being from a small town in Mississippi, she loved all southern foods, and we all looked forward to momma’s big family and holiday dinners. She also enjoyed reading biographies, playing card games, browsing the web and spending time with her family and her friends.
She especially loved Christmas, and each year she would fill the house with her amazing Christmas energy and magic. She was known for her stunning Christmas tree decorations. She would spend countless nights making the tree look picture perfect, and each and every package had a unique and beautiful design to coordinate with her yearly Christmas theme. The end result always resembled something you might see on a greeting card or in a storefront window.
She was amazing woman, wife, mother and friend. Her true, honest, caring and giving spirit was loved and cherished. This, along with her warm and bright smile will be greatly missed by her family and friends.
Delores is survived by her husband of 59 years, Kenneth Zibull; children, Lisa Roberts (John) of Carson City; Scott Zibull (Olya) of Houston, TX; grandchildren Sarah Roberts of Carson City and Zachary Zibull of Denver, CO; and daughter-in-law, Robin Zibull of Reno; and many wonderful friends.
We would like to thank the excellent doctors, nurses and medical staff at Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center and the St. Mary’s Hospice personnel for their caring support.
Please join us this coming Saturday, March 18th, 2017 at 11:00 AM for A Celebration of Life at Calvary Chapel Church, 1635 Clearview Drive, Carson City, NV.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to:Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, 1500 Rosecrans Ave., Suite 200, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266 https://www.pancan.org
