Lois Beth Dennis Kreutzer

Lois Beth Dennis Kreutzer December 3, 1930 - February 15, 2021 Those 90 years represented by that dash between her birth and death were full of love, humor, adventure, and being a faithful servant and mentor held dear by many! Being the youngest of five children, her older sister Orlena would play with her hair and create a Shirley Temple look alike. Sharp in school and gifted musically, Beth studied piano and was soon playing in church services for her father and community events, and she even earned extra money on the side playing popular music in the town's lounge. Switchboard operator, music saleswoman, singer/accompanist - she soon outgrew the small town where she was born and moved to Los Angeles, California at the invitation of Pastor Don Meyer and his wife Francis where she worked at the church as his accompanist and the State Franchise Tax Board to make ends meet. She also volunteered to help lead the young persons' group - where she unexpectedly met the love of her life - Tarp Kreutzer. She was not looking to date him, but was looking for someone to fix him up with. Again and again, it did not work out between whoever she arranged for him to date, until he finally asked her out. In two weeks they were engaged! :-) They married the following December, and had been married for 61 years! The following October they had their first child, a precocious, brilliant, and talented son - me! But when they realized who they were stuck with, three years later they added a daughter full of beauty, compassion, and humility - my sister Kelly! Life rolled on and the years passed. Mom worked in the school system so she could be with us evenings and during school breaks. Eventually be she became an accompanist to a high school music department which used all of her theater and musical ability! She was always dedicated to excellence - one example being the time she broke her arm before a big performance she even asked the doctor if he could set it in such a way that she could play the difficult piece she had mastered for the choir. He wouldn't and she didn't - but she tried! Mama also learned to drive late in life and was never super comfortable in traffic. I happen to have some talent for singing, and she sacrificed driving in heavy traffic week after week so I could go to rehearsal. She even became the accompanist for the boys' choir which sang at a drive-in church called Garden Grove Community Church which became the Crystal Cathedral. In Middle School she also drove me through sleet and snow when we moved to Nevada, where she became the accompanist to the Sierra Boys Choir, where I sang high soprano. We both performed in our spring finale, where we had, unbeknownst to anyone, some surprise guests. Francis Ford Coppola and his brother were looking for a boys group to sing for his sequel to The Godfather. A short time later Mom, the choir, and myself found ourselves recording in a Reno showcase room in a famous casino and then being whisked to Lake Tahoe for three days of filming. Mom said Al Pacino and Diane Keaton were both very pleasant as we took small breaks together during the filming. Even though many people and preparations for the film wound up on the editing floor, you can still see and hear my mom, the choir, and myself singing in the Academy Award winning Godfather 2! My mom had strength and steel in her bones and could accomplish whatever she set her mind to do. When I was 10 years old and cut my hand badly in a ravine, she single-handedly pushed me up the side of a steep creek bed and took me to safety. When we moved back to California and my father wound up in the hospital and we were kicked out by the landlord leasing us a house, which he promised we would be able to stay in as long as we wanted, she single-handedly packed us up, found a place in Laguna Hills for us to rent, and organized our move. She worked as the first secretary for a small Church getting started in a local high school in California - working for a pastor named Rick Warren. She was part of the team that planted the seeds for today's megachurch - Saddleback Valley Community Church - which ministers to millions upon millions of people. She then took her secretarial talents and gifts for thinking outside the box to Fluor Corporation. For years she worked as an excellent secretary at Fluor - praised by all her bosses! She even directed and accompanied a volunteer choir she organized there! She has been and accomplished pianist / accompanist at numerous churches, theatrical productions, and community organizations for well over seventy years - from the West Coast to the East Coast to the Republic of South Africa! Mom was always a loyal friend, although she often thought other people didn't like her - which always made us shake our heads in disbelief. She maintained her friendships, some which lasted over 75 years, and many were so close that they became our second family. My father and she would play canasta with our dear friends the Benedicts every Friday night for about 20 years - even though the men would cheat almost every week! Friday nights were pizza and canasta, Christmas Eve was at our house and Christmas Day was at theirs, and Easter was brunch at some place that could hold us all and not go crazy! The beach on Father's Day (a favorite of Bill's), eating Sunday lunch in Laguna at the Ivy House, and celebrating all the high events in our lives together was the norm. She taught all three of their children piano. My parents loved and trusted these people to be our Guardians and confidants, help us through school, and watch over us in any times of need. And when they decided to leave California and move somewhere else, we even followed their example and moved to Florida at the same time! I know Gaye, who passed away a short time ago, was there to welcome Mom with open arms. She is the mother of two, the grandmother of three, and the great grandmother of four - the latest which was recently born. I am sorry Cruz won't come to experience her like the rest of her family, but we will tell him tales and stories of his fantastic great grandmother so she will never be forgotten! She endured pain upon pain, some voluntarily and some forced upon her: quitting smoking cold turkey twice, a hysterectomy, heart problems, a shattered ankle, numerous operations on her leg, a partial hip replacement, crippling arthritis that robbed her of the ability to play, loss of hearing, a debilitating medical condition, confinement to a wheelchair, and eventually lung cancer - yet she rarely complained. Almost all the time she was concerned with how others felt and we're doing. She was a loving, sacrificial, Christian woman in every sense of the word. Oh - and she especially loved See's milk chocolates and Dark Skittles (if you showed up from Southern California it was best to bring her a box) and British murder mysteries. She could neither read nor watch enough of them. One of the last words she spoke to my father and sister was "Britbox". We will all stagger on without her until we all are reunited in heaven, but this Earth has lost a beat and is a far lonelier place without such a noble generous soul in our midst. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, February 27 at 2:00 pm at Beyers Funeral Home Chapel, Leesburg.