ELOUISE'S OBITUARY
On Saturday, September 24th, Elouise “Dede'' Wilson, passed away peacefully, surrounded by her children. She was 90 years old. Dede was born in the Tower District, in Fresno, California to first generation Italian-Americans. She attended St. Therese Catholic School and San Joaquin Memorial High School. Her best friends were her siblings. She was a natural seamstress and sewed her own clothes including her prom dresses that she made from leftover fabric from her Aunt Rose Peracchi’s curtain business. She also worked for her father’s accounting firm while attending Fresno State College, where she majored in business. In 1950, Dede’s parents owned and operated Dante’s Italian Restaurant, which helped put their children through college. Dede worked as a waitress. During this time, her brother Jim introduced Dede to his fraternity brother, Bob Wilson, a star lineman on Fresno State’s football team. Bob and Dede fell in love, got married and started their family in 1953. They had six children in eight years and a seventh, seven years later. During the 1950s, Dede helped her father and brothers during tax season at their accounting office. Dede was gifted at numbers and balancing the books and her family was always grateful for her help.
All of her children attended Our Lady of Victory School just a few blocks away from their home on Princeton Avenue. Dede enjoyed being part of school events and church functions. She was a devout Catholic and for almost seven decades she was an Our Lady of Victory guild member.
The Wilson home was always open to friends, neighbors and family. Dede was the “Neighborhood Mom”, or the “Den Mother of the Neighborhood”, as some called her. She was multi-talented in music, carpentry, mechanics, gardening and cooking. She even taught herself to cut hair and gave haircuts to all of her own children, as well as to many kids in the neighborhood.
Dede eventually started a career in the travel business and helped countless people with their travel arrangements. She treated her own family to many trips abroad and organized Catholic pilgrimages to Fatima in Portugal, Lourdes in France, Medjugorje in the former Yugoslavia, and to the Holy Land.
Dede’s spontaneity and sense of humor were contagious but she could also deal squarely with tragedy. When her husband Bob passed away in 1999, she carried on with a spirit of independence to make the best of her life. She never lost her faith, her sense of humor or her love for life.
Dede was preceded in death by her husband, Dr. Robert A. Wilson, her parents, James and Vera DeMera and her brother and sister-in-law James and Marie DeMera. She is survived by her three siblings; Howard DeMera (Dottie), Neil DeMera (Betsy), Janet Cameron (Mark) and her seven children, Beth Bandy (Mike), Mark Wilson (Susan), Stephen Wilson, Michael Wilson (Alison), Walter Wilson (Kim), Robert Wilson, John Wilson (Allene), nine grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and many cousins, nieces and nephews.
Remembrances may be made to the Poverello House or Catholic Charities.
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