Zona Eby Navelle was born Zona Eby in Ocean Grove, N.J., She graduated from Buffalo Seminary and William Smith College.
In 1930, she married Ward J. Navelle, an accountant, who created Grampie Wonderful wooden pull toys in their basement in East Aurora in 1968. Orders for the toys came in from all over the world. After retirement, the couple wintered in Venice, Fla., where they continued their toy business. Zona moved to Akron after her husband died in 1989. She moved to Clarence in 2004.
Zona, who, after 70 years of writing poetry, published her first book of poems.
"The Scratchings of a Summer Chicken" was published in November, while she was recovering from a broken hip in ElderWood Health Care at Oakwood.
"That's everything in the world that I wanted," she said during an interview with The Buffalo News, "and now all my dreams have come true."
Zona can no longer see well enough to read her own poems, she knows them by heart and recites them. And she's still creating new ones.
Until now, only a few of her poems had been published since she first broke into the April 1930 edition of the Ridge, the literary magazine of William Smith College. Typically, one of them was a satire on men who want to change women (although it concluded with an atypical word for publications in those days):
"So I shall stay the self-same way, nor ponder any man.
And if a man should hint a change,
I shall not give a damn."
The poems in Zona Navelle's book are marked by rhyme, cadence and wit. They are bright and cheerful – but she hasn't lost her flair for the mildly satiric. One of them is titled "I think I've Lost My Waistline." She enjoys reciting it:
"It seems I've lost my waistline
Somewhere along my way.
If you should chance to see it,
Please don't turn away.
But pick it up and call me,
I'd be glad to pay the toll.
I know it's old and wrinkled
But it's that or none at all."
When she is done, she laughs and confesses to having written "a lot of silly things like that."
In 1995, after four decades of research, Zona finished the manuscript for a book on her family, "Through the Windows of Time: From Theodorus to Me." It traced her family's genealogy through nine generations from Theodorus Aebi, her Swiss Mennonite ancestor who fled religious persecution in 1712 and settled in Lancaster, Pa.
Based on this research, she was admitted to membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. She also was a member of Clan MacAlister and the Village Red Hatters.
An accomplished pianist, Navelle also tutored French in her home for many years.
Survivors include two daughters, a foster daughter; 11 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.
Her book of poems is dedicated to her daughters.
In 1930, she married Ward J. Navelle, an accountant, who created Grampie Wonderful wooden pull toys in their basement in East Aurora in 1968. Orders for the toys came in from all over the world. After retirement, the couple wintered in Venice, Fla., where they continued their toy business. Zona moved to Akron after her husband died in 1989. She moved to Clarence in 2004.
Zona, who, after 70 years of writing poetry, published her first book of poems.
"The Scratchings of a Summer Chicken" was published in November, while she was recovering from a broken hip in ElderWood Health Care at Oakwood.
"That's everything in the world that I wanted," she said during an interview with The Buffalo News, "and now all my dreams have come true."
Zona can no longer see well enough to read her own poems, she knows them by heart and recites them. And she's still creating new ones.
Until now, only a few of her poems had been published since she first broke into the April 1930 edition of the Ridge, the literary magazine of William Smith College. Typically, one of them was a satire on men who want to change women (although it concluded with an atypical word for publications in those days):
"So I shall stay the self-same way, nor ponder any man.
And if a man should hint a change,
I shall not give a damn."
The poems in Zona Navelle's book are marked by rhyme, cadence and wit. They are bright and cheerful – but she hasn't lost her flair for the mildly satiric. One of them is titled "I think I've Lost My Waistline." She enjoys reciting it:
"It seems I've lost my waistline
Somewhere along my way.
If you should chance to see it,
Please don't turn away.
But pick it up and call me,
I'd be glad to pay the toll.
I know it's old and wrinkled
But it's that or none at all."
When she is done, she laughs and confesses to having written "a lot of silly things like that."
In 1995, after four decades of research, Zona finished the manuscript for a book on her family, "Through the Windows of Time: From Theodorus to Me." It traced her family's genealogy through nine generations from Theodorus Aebi, her Swiss Mennonite ancestor who fled religious persecution in 1712 and settled in Lancaster, Pa.
Based on this research, she was admitted to membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. She also was a member of Clan MacAlister and the Village Red Hatters.
An accomplished pianist, Navelle also tutored French in her home for many years.
Survivors include two daughters, a foster daughter; 11 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.
Her book of poems is dedicated to her daughters.
Zona Eby Navelle was born Zona Eby in Ocean Grove, N.J., She graduated from Buffalo Seminary and William Smith College.
In 1930, she married Ward J. Navelle, an accountant, who created Grampie Wonderful wooden pull toys in their basement in East Aurora in 1968. Orders for the toys came in from all over the world. After retirement, the couple wintered in Venice, Fla., where they continued their toy business. Zona moved to Akron after her husband died in 1989. She moved to Clarence in 2004.
Zona, who, after 70 years of writing poetry, published her first book of poems.
"The Scratchings of a Summer Chicken" was published in November, while she was recovering from a broken hip in ElderWood Health Care at Oakwood.
"That's everything in the world that I wanted," she said during an interview with The Buffalo News, "and now all my dreams have come true."
Zona can no longer see well enough to read her own poems, she knows them by heart and recites them. And she's still creating new ones.
Until now, only a few of her poems had been published since she first broke into the April 1930 edition of the Ridge, the literary magazine of William Smith College. Typically, one of them was a satire on men who want to change women (although it concluded with an atypical word for publications in those days):
"So I shall stay the self-same way, nor ponder any man.
And if a man should hint a change,
I shall not give a damn."
The poems in Zona Navelle's book are marked by rhyme, cadence and wit. They are bright and cheerful – but she hasn't lost her flair for the mildly satiric. One of them is titled "I think I've Lost My Waistline." She enjoys reciting it:
"It seems I've lost my waistline
Somewhere along my way.
If you should chance to see it,
Please don't turn away.
But pick it up and call me,
I'd be glad to pay the toll.
I know it's old and wrinkled
But it's that or none at all."
When she is done, she laughs and confesses to having written "a lot of silly things like that."
In 1995, after four decades of research, Zona finished the manuscript for a book on her family, "Through the Windows of Time: From Theodorus to Me." It traced her family's genealogy through nine generations from Theodorus Aebi, her Swiss Mennonite ancestor who fled religious persecution in 1712 and settled in Lancaster, Pa.
Based on this research, she was admitted to membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. She also was a member of Clan MacAlister and the Village Red Hatters.
An accomplished pianist, Navelle also tutored French in her home for many years.
Survivors include two daughters, a foster daughter; 11 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.
Her book of poems is dedicated to her daughters.
In 1930, she married Ward J. Navelle, an accountant, who created Grampie Wonderful wooden pull toys in their basement in East Aurora in 1968. Orders for the toys came in from all over the world. After retirement, the couple wintered in Venice, Fla., where they continued their toy business. Zona moved to Akron after her husband died in 1989. She moved to Clarence in 2004.
Zona, who, after 70 years of writing poetry, published her first book of poems.
"The Scratchings of a Summer Chicken" was published in November, while she was recovering from a broken hip in ElderWood Health Care at Oakwood.
"That's everything in the world that I wanted," she said during an interview with The Buffalo News, "and now all my dreams have come true."
Zona can no longer see well enough to read her own poems, she knows them by heart and recites them. And she's still creating new ones.
Until now, only a few of her poems had been published since she first broke into the April 1930 edition of the Ridge, the literary magazine of William Smith College. Typically, one of them was a satire on men who want to change women (although it concluded with an atypical word for publications in those days):
"So I shall stay the self-same way, nor ponder any man.
And if a man should hint a change,
I shall not give a damn."
The poems in Zona Navelle's book are marked by rhyme, cadence and wit. They are bright and cheerful – but she hasn't lost her flair for the mildly satiric. One of them is titled "I think I've Lost My Waistline." She enjoys reciting it:
"It seems I've lost my waistline
Somewhere along my way.
If you should chance to see it,
Please don't turn away.
But pick it up and call me,
I'd be glad to pay the toll.
I know it's old and wrinkled
But it's that or none at all."
When she is done, she laughs and confesses to having written "a lot of silly things like that."
In 1995, after four decades of research, Zona finished the manuscript for a book on her family, "Through the Windows of Time: From Theodorus to Me." It traced her family's genealogy through nine generations from Theodorus Aebi, her Swiss Mennonite ancestor who fled religious persecution in 1712 and settled in Lancaster, Pa.
Based on this research, she was admitted to membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. She also was a member of Clan MacAlister and the Village Red Hatters.
An accomplished pianist, Navelle also tutored French in her home for many years.
Survivors include two daughters, a foster daughter; 11 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.
Her book of poems is dedicated to her daughters.
