Obituary of HAZEL BERDYNE TODD

"The song is ended, but the melody lingers on." Irving Berlin Hazel Berdyne Todd passed away on September 28th, 2019 at the age of 93, while under hospice care in her home in Georgetown, CA, where she had lived for 18 years with her grandson and his family: Jonathan & Cookie Tank and their 5 children. She was born March 10th, 1926 in Alpena, South Dakota and grew up in Strafford, Missouri. In 1945, at the age of 18, she moved to southern California all by herself for a job. In 1947, she married George W. Todd and also took on the care of George’s brother’s 3 orphaned children, Thelma, Roy, and Janie. Together they had 2 children, Rita Latimer and Richard Todd. She spent her whole life working in child evangelism, traveling and giving workshops and seminars all over the United States, Canada, and even other countries. In 1981, she started a community Bible school in Georgetown, which she operated for 9 years completely free of charge. During those 9 years, more than 900 local children attended. For many years, “Granny Hazel” read and sang songs with the children at the Georgetown library every Wednesday morning during their story time. She is preceded in death by her husband, George Todd. She is survived by her daughter, Rita Latimer, her son, Richard Todd, her nephew Roy Todd, her grandchildren Jonathan Tank, Eric Todd, Jeremy Tank, Josiah Tank, Kimberly Steiner, and Janessa McNutt, as well as her great-grandchildren, Joanna, Natasha, Nicholas, Jalissa, JJ, Emily, Jacob, Lauren, Carolyn, Freya, Ethan, Mason, Avery, Kayla, Micah, and Malakai. A memorial service will be held at the Seventh Day Adventist church in Camino, CA on Saturday, October 5th at 3:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Georgetown Library in Hazel's honor: PO Box 55, Georgetown CA 95634. All donations will be used to purchase children’s books.