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Nancy Lewis Hoke – nee Matteson (1931 – 2017)

Our beloved Nancy Lewis Hoke, of Peoria, AZ, was born in Kansas City, KS on July 31,1931 and returned home to be with the Lord on August 2, 2017. Nancy was preceded in death by her brothers, Duncan L. Matteson (Shirley), George C. Matteson (Margo), and by her parents, Bernice B. Matteson and George C. Matteson. She was survived by her three children, Claudia Lewis Gilburd (Michael), Allyson Baumman Lewis Lozares (Brad), and Warner Lewis III (Karin), all of Scottsdale, Arizona.

Nancy’s friends and family will remember her as a beautiful, vibrant and stylish woman who possessed a smile that would light up any room. Nancy radiated love, joy, serenity and grace. She played piano and was blessed with a rich soprano voice, which she used often, whether singing in church choir or spontaneously erupting into three-part harmony. Nancy’s life revolved around music and artistic creativity in all its forms.

Nancy attended Kansas University as a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority, and married Warner Lewis, Jr. of Tulsa, OK in 1952. Moving with her family to Geneva, Switzerland in 1966, Nancy exposed her children to the history, languages and culture of Europe, Africa and the Middle East. She was very involved with The American Church in Geneva, Switzerland, where she sang in the choir and served in leadership as a Deacon. Nancy had the opportunity to represent the European Episcopal Dioceses at several U.S. National Convocations.

Nancy returned to the States in 1974, living in New York City and studying Clinical Psychology. She moved to California in 1976 to join her brother, Duncan and his family in Menlo Park, where she built a successful career in real estate sales. Nancy moved to Scottsdale, AZ in 1991 to be with newly-arriving grandchildren. Once established in Arizona, she started a successful event planning business, putting her superlative hosting talents and organizational skills to work.

Friends introduced her to William Hoke, a retired businessman whom she married and shared a wonderful life, filled with friends, family and travel. Not long after Bill passed, the symptoms of Alzheimer’s began to appear in earnest, taking Nancy gently down a path of forgetfulness, then dementia. Always one to see the bright side, Nancy embraced her progressing condition, declaring with characteristic humor and grace that her forgetfulness provided the rest of us with ‘good entertainment’.

Until the very end, Nancy remembered her loved ones’ names and enthusiastically recalled family adventures from decades past. She continually expressed gratitude for her family’s deep love and devotion to her happiness and comfort, and how safe and well-cared for she felt. Nancy often declared, “I’m so thankful we belong to each other!” We, her devoted children and grandchildren, are eternally grateful for her richly creative and joy-filled life, and for the unconditional love that she showered upon each of us in abundant, seemingly limitless supply. Now that Nancy’s arrived, the party in Heaven can really begin!