Estelle Witt

1917 - 2012

Estelle A. Witt
July 31, 1917 - December 6, 2012
Estelle Agnes (Haberek) Witt, born July 31, 1917, passed away peacefully in the home of her eldest son and his wife, Lawrence and Lana, on December 6, 2012. 
Friends and family are invited to attend a visitation from noon to 2:00pm on Tuesday, December 18, 2012 at St. Anthony Catholic Church, 1799 Winton Way, Atwater, CA.  Immediately following will be a Mass of Christian Burial at 2:00 pm at St. Anthony's.  Burial will follow at Winton District Cemetery.  Estelle would have wanted any Contributions to be made on her behalf to St. Anthony's Catholic Church and School. 
Estelle was born in Cleveland, next to the youngest of 8 children and the offspring of Polish immigrants, Ignacy Haberek, her father, and Bronislawa (Muzyk) Haberek, her mother.  She was raised on a 400 acre dairy farm in Poland, NY, which she still owns. 
Estelle lived in Atwater for 50 years.  She was an active and devoted member of St. Anthony's Parish and of the Atwater community.   Prior to living in Atwater, Estelle lived in Ohio and Oklahoma, Texas and Florida, New Mexico and New York, and Japan. 
A feisty and always positive person, Estelle was a wonderful and loving woman.  She had many talents, too many to mention, and no obstacles were insurmountable to her—one had to simply think about it for a while before the solution presented itself.  A few oddities may provide some hints as to her nature:  she was a talented clothing designer, back in the day of long skirts, tight at the knee (and everywhere else) and jackets broad at the shoulder; she was a member of a leather-toting motorcycle gang in 1938, which, of course, horrified her parents;  she also worked on the B-17 Norden Bombsight used by the USAF, a highly classified secret project during WWII.  She also made a seriously good pecan pie, taught to her by her Texas Mother- in- Law.
Estelle's proudest accomplishments were her 5 sons, Lawrence (and Lana), of Half Moon Bay; Gary of Oxford; Matthew (and Colleen), of Acworth, GA;  Michael (and Teresa), of Flushing, MI;  and Lance (and Hale), of Granite Bay; ten grandchildren and one great grandchild.  She imbued a love for learning in them that flowed from her hugely capable heart.  Her favorite Poem was Lady of the Lake, by Sir Walter Scott, and was able, even in her last decade, to recite accurately any number of verses from Lincoln,  Poe, Alfred Lord Tennyson and OWHolmes, Sr.  In her dotage she could only manage a few lines of Coleridge. 
Her later years were remarkable in that she was always leading from the front, through sheer force of personality.  While sweet, she was not shy or bashful.   She was a politician but not political, and would only say nice things about most Presidents, save Truman.  If you ever wanted to get her agitated, and it was fun to see, just mention Truman and his firing of General Douglas MacArthur. 
She ran for Mayor of Atwater once and her kids passed out leaflets.  In her heart, Estelle was a Roosevelt-era die-hard Democrat who, for some reason, never quite got around to voting that way.  She was the Holy Reagent of the local branch of the Catholic Daughters of America, for 3 years, when her ex-husband, Marvin, was the Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus. 
She was an avid international traveler, especially to places important to Catholics.  She was blessed personally by two Popes, and loved the Vatican Museum and Medjugorje. One of her most memorable trips was with her son Larry and daughter in law Lana to pre-capitalist China, which she enjoyed thoroughly.  While travelling there and upon her return she was heard to remark "Gimme a damn Cheeseburger."
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