RIEDELBACH, Delita Linda Officer

1941 - 1984  (43 years)  Submit Photo / Document

 Set As Default Person

• Name	RIEDELBACH, Delita Linda Officer
  Birth	24 Jan 1941	Los Angelas, Los Angelas, California, United States
  Gender	Female
  Burial	Sep 1984	Rancho Palos Verdes, Los Angelas, California, United States
  Death	11 Sep 1984	Los Angelas, Los Angelas, California, United States
  WAC	15 Nov 2002	JRIVE
  Headstones	Submit Headstone Photo
  Person ID	I59	Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith
  Last Modified	19 Aug 2021

  
  

  Father	Living
  Mother	ROSENBURG, Edith Irene ,   b. 25 Apr 1914, Denver, Arapahoe, Colorado, United States Denver, Arapahoe, Colorado, United Statesd. 16 Jun 1983, Fort Gordon, Jefferson, Georgia, United States (Age 69 years)
  Family ID	F74	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Living
  Children	2 daughters
  + 1. Living + 2. Living
  Family ID	F73	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jan 2022

  
  

• Photos » Slide Show
  		Dolita Collins Rath.jpg

  
  

• Notes

  Dolita was the illigitimate child given up for adoption at time of birth to William Henry Officer & Lelah Clementine Brabham. Attached are both the birth certificate and a delayed birth certificate. Notes follow are husbands story: Hi Mike I'm really happy Ernie gave you a call. If you hadn't put your info on the IGI I would never have put this all together. So, I really appreciate your work. I'd be happy to send a copy of the birth certificate I found for DELITA. Can you receive e-mail attachments? That would be the fastest way. Here's a little background of who I am and how I found the connection. I married a girl by the name of Delita Linda Officer (Willoughby) Dec 31, 1964. She was born 24 Jan 1941 in Los Angeles. We had two daughters, Aimee and Kimberly. Aimee has 3 daughters and a son, and Kim has 2 sons. Unfortunately for us all, Delita died Sept 1984 of cancer and is on the social security death index as Delita Rath. She always believed she was an Officer. Her parents were represented to her as William H. Ted Officer and Lealah Brabham, both of the Kansas City Mo area. They lived in Los Angeles in 1941. Her 'mother' Lealah divorced Officer and married a Lee Willoughby, and Delita used the Willoughby name from High School on until we married. I remarried 4 years after she passed away to a lady I had known for a long time, named Theresa, nicknamed 'Taffy'. Taffy and I do genealogy almost full time, and volunteer one day a week at the LA Family History Center, even though we are not Mormon. We like to help folks do genealogy and we feel we are paying back the help we have received. Two weeks ago, I happened to check the Calif birth records, recently placed on line on the Internet. I ran Delita through it and she didn't appear as an Officer. Because she had a fairly unique first line, I plugged it in and I was surprised to find a Delita Linda Riedelbach, born 24 Jan 1941 in Los Angeles. That is identical to Delita Linda Officer. I checked the birth certificate I had for Delita and discovered that it was a 'delayed' birth certif, where her 'uncle' and a friend of the family certified the info. I went to the LA County Recorders office and got the birth Certificate for Delita Linda Riedelbach and found the parents to be Ernest W. Riedelbach and Edith Rosenberg. So she was a biological daugher of them who must have been given up for adoption. After 2 weeks of asking more questions, I finally found Ernest Riedelbach in Idaho and talked to him on the phone. He was not aware of Delita, but agreed to talk to his Aunt Blanche in Culver City Calif and his older sisters. His Aunt Blanche called me and said she remembered some family talks about her Aunt Edith giving up a child, probably a daughter for adoption. Then Ernie sent me e-mail saying that his sisters remembered 'some children not growing up with the family'. So, here I am. I did some checking and found a submital to the Mormon IGI with Ernie's parents on it. It was submitted by a nephew of Ernie's, Michael Allen Kennedy. Ernie told me that Jody Ames had done some genealogy on the Rosenberg side. So I found a number for her and called her also. I have been doing some census searches and am collecting info on the Riedelbachs in Wisconsin. I also found some ship records which seem to fit in. Over the last couple of days, i have talked to Ernie, Barbara, Bobi and Dolly. I haven't talked to Ruth or Virginia yet. Dolly emailed a few pictures, and I sent some to Bobi and Dolly. I am in the process of sending pictures to Barbara via snail mail. I hope this explains everything, and am really happy to find someone who is doing family history on the family. Please let me know if I can add additional info. Thanks and I really look forward to your response. Dick Rath in Palos Verdes, in Southern Calif. (310) 544-0346, A little background from this end: I retired 6 years ago from Hughes Aircraft Co, where I was a Principal Scientist/Engineer involved with computer aided design. They were having a round of layoffs and everyone had to 're-compete' for our jobs. So, after 33 years there and being 55 I could retire early and others could not. So I took advantage of it and have enjoyed it ever since and have never looked back. My wife Taffy and I enjoy doing genealogy and travel 4-5 months of the year in our 30 foot motorhome chasing our roots and enjoying the sights of the country. The rest of the time we live in Palos Verdes in the LA area (between Long Beach and Redondo Beach, up on the 1000 foot hill if you remember the area at all). When we are home we volunteer one day a week at the LA Family History Center at the LA Temple helping people do genealogy, to try to pay back for the help we have received. We are involved in Ham Radio and use it to keep in touch with each other and our friends. Because we are up on the hill, we have a repeater station here at the house. Delita and I went to Westchester High School near LAX. She was a year behind me. We also attended the same church and youth fellowship. We lived two blocks apart. We didn't go together during high school but did date a couple of times. We got together a few years after graduating. She was working at the local Bank as a teller and my folks told me they had seen her there. So I dropped by and we started dating and got engaged, then married on New Years Eve, 1964. We lived in Westchester for a while and she went to work for Western Airlines. I had dropped out of College and began working at Hughes Aircraft as an electronic technician. Eventually I finished my BSEE at USC and continued at Hughes, rising up into engineering management before retiring. When Delita became pregnant in 1967, we bought our first house in Torrance California and our first daughter Aimee was born in 1968. In 1971 our second daughter Kimberly was born. We moved to Palos Verdes about 1976. When the girls were born, Delita left Western Airlines and stayed home with the kids. She did some babysitting at home and worked at the private school Aimee attended. And was very active in the girls scoccer and baseball teams. Besides the kids, her main interest was in vocal music. She was the choir director for the childrens choir at our church and was a paid soloist at a number of local churches. She had a beautiful clear and strong soprano voice About 1982, she was diagonsed with cancer. It had spread to many places and the initial diagnosis only gave her weeks to live. With a lot of unpleasant treatment, she stretched it over two years. Aimee was 16 and Kim was 13 when she died. About 4 years later, I remarried to Taffy (Theresa). We had met on Ham Radio back in 1960 and had gone together for a while. Then I went back east with a friend for a few months and she found somebody else while I was gone. She got married and had a daughter and son, and later got divorced. She had been alone for many years when I thought to try calling her. We got married in 1988 and have been going strong ever since. All of the kids are out on their own, so we can travel as we like. My daughters are both married. Aimee has 4 children, 3 girls and a boy. Kimberly has 2 sons. Aimee lives in Temecula, about 2 hours away and Kim is in Lomita, nearby. Aimee stays at home with the kids and is very active in coaching soccer. Kim works full time in computer support. As far as I can tell, Delita NEVER had any idea that she was adopted. Her mother had many pictures of her as an infant and growing up. She even had a picture showing her pregnant with a date on the back just before Delita was born. Regarding the 2 birth certificates, the one we had was a 'delayed certificate' issued in 1959 by California. It shows the Officer surname and was sworn to by a friend of the family and an 'uncle' (brother to her adopted mother). So they went to great lengths to hide the adoption, if indeed there was a real legal adoption. I haven't tried to look into adoptions yet, but understand they are difficult to access. It's possible that it could have been an 'unofficial' adoption with no paperwork I guess. That may explain why the original birth certificate was not sealed or removed from the records. Delita always wanted siblings. Her mother had a son who was 12 years older than Delita. He left when Delita was in junior high school, because he was causing problems in the family and their step father told him to leave and not come back. He never did return and Delita always hoped he would contact her, which he never did. So, she grew up almost an only child with her mother and stepfather (her mother divorced Officer and later remarried). She would have loved having 5 sisters and a brother and nieces, nephews and cousins. As I mentioned in our phone conversations, I discovered the inconsistancy while 'playing' with the California birth records now available on the internet. When I couldn't find Delita Officer, I just tried to find 'Delita' and discovered the Riedelbach record with identical first and middle names, birth date and place. Too much to be a coincidence. Finally I found the submital of your parents to the LDS IGI, which led me to the on line phone book and you all. !BIRTH: per Los Angeles Co, Birth Certif Delita LInda Reidelbach, b. LA Couny, LA, 4033 Mont Clair St, female, 24 Ja n 1941. Father, Ernest Reidelbach, white, 34, residing in Calif 5 years, b. Chicago, IL, general laborer, W.P.A. Proje ct, mother Edith Rosenberg, white, 29, b. Chicago IL, housewife, 4 other children living, no others dead., info per mot her. Born at home. !BIRTH: Dept of Public Health, Calif. file no. 112077, Delayed Birth Certificate, Delita Linda Officer, b. 24 Jan 1941 , Father William Henry Officer, mother Lealah Clementina Brabham. !INFO: given up for adoption (informal??) in Los Angeles to Leah Clementina (Brabham) and William Henry 'Ted' Office r immediately after birth in Los Angeles County. Leah later moved to Tacoma Washington, divorced Officer and married L ee E. Willoughby. They moved to Los Angeles, where Lee Willoughby owned a gas station at Crenshaw and La Brea. !INFO: Social Security SS-5 application form: Delita Linda Willoughby, 7389 West 81st, LA 45, Calif, full name at birt h, Delita Linda Willoughby, age 15, dob 24 Jan 1941, Los Angeles, CA, father Lee Egbert Willoughby, mother Lealah Cleme ntina Brabham, female white. unemployed, dated 3 July 1956. SS # 570-52-7917. !MARRIAGE: Per husband. !DEATH: Certificate State of Calif, dated 11 Sept 1984 in possession of Richard R. Rath. 1988 SS death match. S S no 570-52-7917 !BURIAL: Green Hills Memorial Park, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, Valley View Section 111,D