Elizabeth Laura Crosetti

Elizabeth Laura (Pribbernow) Crosetti passed away on  Feb 12, 2023. Elizabeth’s  childhood was spent in Whitetail, Montana, a small town located at the end of the rail line near the Canadian border.  Her father supported the family of five as the depot agent and telegrapher.  Of keen intellect and imagination, among Elizabeth’s youthful dreams was that of becoming a Canadian Mounted Police. Her love of animals realized at a young age would follow her throughout her life, as would her epic storytelling, like the time a bull charged after her through town.

At age 14, both parents deceased, Elizabeth followed her sister Evelyn and Evelyn’s husband, George, to Tacoma Washington. Elizabeth was taken in as an au pair to the children of a doctor’s family, providing her room and board as she continued her studies in high school.  In the coming years Elizabeth met and married Victor Crosetti and soon four daughters were born: Wendy, Claudia, Leah and Rachel.

Elizabeth enriched her family’s lives with her exceptional cooking and love of music, theater, film and books. An avid reader her books were often filled with notations of her favorite passages, many of which she recited verbatim. At one point she became a master player of Duplicate Bridge, undefeatable when paired with good friend, Henrietta.

During her daughters’ high school years, their friends and neighbors were often found in lively conversation crowded around the kitchen table while Elizabeth began preparing some delicious meal for dinner. It may have been the smell of fresh baked bread that lured them in, but we know it was Elizabeth herself who was at the center of it all. She was considered the cool mom on the block, well versed in subjects ranging from politics to cooking, from history to movie trivia and from women’s rights to Bob Dylan. However, it was the world of the animal kingdom that would soon become her calling and one-like everything else she pursued in her life-she took on with great joy and passion.

When  Elizabeth and Victor retired and settled in Redwood Valley, California, she began volunteering for humane animal welfare concerns. In 1991, realizing the need for affordable spay neuter in Mendocino County she and co-founder, Margaret Winkler, established the non-profit organization SNAP, the Spay Neuter Assistance Program.  Together with other hardworking volunteers their efforts provided affordable spay neuter assistance thereby preventing millions of unwanted animals from lives of hardship as the result of overpopulation. Her dedication to the animal kingdom lives on today as SNAP continues in their mission to serve the animal population of Mendocino County.

Elizabeth is survived by her husband, Victor, her daughters, Wendy DeMeulenaere (Mark), Claudia Crosetti, Leah Robertson (Tim) and Rachel Hoefer(Rick), four grandchildren: Natalie, Amy, Emily and Kevin and great grandchildren: Sadie, Paige, Penny, Jack and John Charles. Elizabeth was preceded in death by her mother Alfreda, father Frederick, sister Evelyn and brothers Carl, Virgil and Fritz.

The Crosetti family wishes to thank Daliston’s Residential Care Home for their exceptional love and care of Elizabeth during her later years. In memory of Elizabeth the family requests donations in her honor be made to SNAP, P. O. Box 4, Talmage, CA 95481 or to Ukiah Valley Friends of The Library at 105 North Main Street, Ukiah, CA 95482 (or online at ukiahfol.com).