Loretta Orton, aged 89 died peacefully on 12/12/24 with her beloved family by her side.  She is preceded in death by her parents, Percy and Mary Ellen, her sister Madonna, her brother Joey, her daughter Kelly and her husband Morris, and the love of her life, Alvin.

Mom is survived by her children, Linda (Eric), Susan (Eric), Scoop (Tina), Andy, Adrienne (Bryan) and Dinah (Jason) as well as her grandchildren Tim, Joseph, Amy, Eddie, Echo, Jayvin, Lexi, Tanner, Ryan, Ashton, Drew, Ron, Luke, Mark, Trevor, Joey and her 22 great grandchildren; siblings, Mary (Joe), Rita, Bill (Julia), Peggy; numerous nieces and nephews.

Mom married Dad in 1960 and was married for 60 years before he passed.  Their union produced 7 children.  She was a stay-at-home mom while the kids were growing up.  Once the last kid went to school full-time, Mom got a job as a secretary at Children's Hospital.  She loved her job and working with the doctors and staff.  She was also known to supply the sodas to the staff for a discounted price.  Mom worked there for 25 years.

What many might not know is what a generous and fun person she was.  In a lot of ways, she was an unconventional mother.  She smoked (years ago), drank and loved to gamble.  She kept unconventional hours and stayed up to the wee hours to do laundry and play solitaire.  That might have been the only peaceful time she had to herself.

Three of her children were diagnosed with diabetes in the 1970's when the kids had to take 3 insulin shots a day and there was no easy way to monitor their blood sugars.  She was never a "woe is me" kind of person and she took it all in stride.  Mom didn't treat the diabetes as a disability which allowed the 3 to live life as normally as possible.  This led the other 4 children to think everyone kept insulin in their butter drawers.

Mom loved chocolate more than food and she had bags of it open and available all around the house.  She never met a stranger and loved to tell stories about all the colorful characters at her work and in her neighborhood.  She knew everyone's story.

Mom could be stubborn but she was also easy going.  She took us to every Christmas at the Zoo, every hayride, every Easter Egg Hunt, parades in the rain and snow, tree lighting, you name it.  We believed that the song "Waiting on a Woman" was written with my mother in mind.  We were always the family arriving 10 minutes late to everything from church and then having to sit in the last pew, to birthday parties and us wrapping the birthday gift on the way, to the last-minute hair cut because school pictures were that morning.

Mom was very generous, especially with her time.  She volunteered for the American Heart Association, raised money for the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy telethon, and organized multiple events in the neighborhood.  One of the favorites that combined her love for gambling and having a great time was every year for Kentucky Derby.  Mom got all the neighborhood kids together and they paid $0.25 to randomly pick a horse in a race.  She cooked bags of popcorn and had all the flavors of Crush soda while we watched the horse race.  Whichever horse won; the kid(s) who selected that horse took home a few dollars.

Mom left behind many of her great attributes in her children; work ethic in Andy, the dedication to family in Scoop, the love of laughter and fun in Susie, the never giving up in Linda, the sense of adventure in Dinah and the love of life in Adrienne.

We will miss her but she will never be forgotten.