Bessie Lou Slee Lyon

BESSIE LOU SLEE LYON

Nov. 20, 1927 - Jan. 31, 2008

Bessie Lou Slee Lyon, 80, passed away on January 31, 2008, at her home in La Quinta, CA.
She was born on November 20, 1927, in Brawley and graduated from BUHS where she was a pom-pom girl. After high school, she moved to New York and lived in Grenwich Village for about a year. After her adventure in New York, she came back to California and attended the University of Southern California where she was a proud member of the Delta Gamma sorority and earned a degree in History. It was at USC where she met William Parker Lyon III with whom she married and began a family in Pasadena, CA. Bessie Lou and Bill had three children, Kori Joan, Porter and Scott. After two years in Pasadena, they moved to Brawley where they lived for the next eight years, spending summers in Newport Beach, CA. Bessie Lou and her family then moved to Newport Beach and finished raising their children.
She became a licensed X-ray technician and worked 25 years for a radiologist in Costa Mesa before moving to La Quinta and taking a job at Eisenhower Medical Center, where she became the oldest working X-ray technician. Bessie Lou enjoyed fast cars, motorcycles, gardening, studying history, visiting art galleries, and spending time on the coasts of Northern California and Oregon. She always owned fast cars with large engines. On weekends, she could be seen racing across the desert and up steep hills on her motorcycle. She also loved gardening so much that she came out of retirement to take care of the indoor plants for several area country clubs including PGA West and the La Quinta Hotel.
Bessie Lou was preceded in death by her son, Porter and her grandson, Casey.
She is survived by her husband, Bill; her daughter, Kori; her son, Scott; her grandchildren Bonnie, Brian and Travis and great- grandchildren Sarah and Savannah.