Elizabeth Vivian Zache

For 96-and-a-half years Elizabeth Zache enjoyed good health and a sound mind, right up to mid-day New Year’s Eve when she suffered a stroke. Two weeks later she was working on physical therapy and looking forward to her traditional climb up the Keystone Stairs in Miami on her 97th birthday when she had a second stroke which proved fatal. She was born June 22, 1916 in Santa Rita, New Mexico, the third of nine children of John and Mary Thompson who earlier had homesteaded south of Deming. They moved to Bisbee in 1922 and finally to Van Winkle Canyon in Lower Miami in 1924. She attended George Washington Elementary and graduated from Miami High School in 1935. At age 17 while still in high school she met the love of her life, Charles Zachemsky, a young U.S. Army soldier assigned to servicing trucks and light plants at Civilian Conservation Corps camps all over Arizona and New Mexico. He was riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle when they met and she loved riding with him; while visiting for Thanksgiving in Denver two months ago she thoroughly enjoyed a long ride in the sidecar of a grandson, Charles Zachemsky. Other grandchildren are Robert Zache, Jade Arvizu, Zak Zache and Arianna Malbon. She and Charlie were married 54 years and had three children: Bob (Joanne) of Miami, Sue (Rick) of North Pole, Alaska, and Randy (Janet) of Marana. Charlie died in 1989. A few years later she met Lester Schmidt at the VFW in Globe and they were together 13 years before he died in 2009. She is survived by her three children; five grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; her sister Mary Lee Wideau of Homedale, Idaho, and 13 nieces and nephews. She was a member of Eastern Star and Daughters of the American Revolution. A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31 at the VFW Post 1704, 707 S. Broad St. in Globe. She left her body to medical research and any cremains will be distributed by the family at a later date.