Aletha “Lee” Marilyn Kayaloff, 79, died Monday, February 25, 2019, at the Peyton Hospice House in Lewisburg, WV.
Born on June 9, 1939, in Long Island, NY, she was a daughter of Vladimir and Aletha Muriel Kayaloff.
Lee earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology at Hollins College, and graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1978. Lee was employed as a counselor at Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare, a counselor at the LewisGale Psychiatric Center, and a planner and instructor at Total Action Against Poverty, where she was instrumental in the early planning and funding of the Comprehensive Health Care Investment Project (CHIP), which provided healthcare to needy children in Roanoke, VA. She was also a support counselor at On Our Own, a center for people with mental illnesses in Roanoke, as well as a site supervisor for League of Older Americans Meals on Wheels, where she organized donations of pet food to needy clients with dogs and cats.
Lee could not ignore the plight of homeless, sentient beings, and during the 1980s, worked selflessly as co-founder and activist for Roanoke Organization for Animal Rights (ROAR). Her work in ROAR included advocacy for the protection of pigeons trapped by the city of Roanoke, other wildlife, and domestic dogs and cats.
Lee was predeceased by her parents; and recently by her nephew, Walter Austen.
Survivors include two sisters, Anne Pisarra (Sal) of North Carolina and Nora Johnson (Bill) of Caldwell, WV; brother, Walt Kayaloff of Lewisburg; nieces, Laurie Austen of NC, Karen Austen of Texas, and Nicole Kayaloff of Florida; and grandnephew, Zack Austen of Kern, NC.
Lee’s wealth was comprised of many valued friends, only some of whom are named here. In Virginia, Ann Rogers, Carol Kinzer, Kathleen Hall, Carol Collett-White, Jim O’Brien, Jim Paschal, and Beth Herndon; in New York, Aurora Lederman, Elaine Panella, Lucille Cesario, and Eileen Croston and the Bradys of New Rochelle; in Washington, Judy Peterson; in Illinois, Katy Feinsot; and in West Virginia, Tanyia Montie, and the incredible staff of the Peyton Hospice House, Joyce Anderson, Janet Carroll, and Terrie King.
Lee’s remains will be interred in the Greenbrier Memorial Gardens in Lewisburg on Saturday, April 20, 2019, at 1 p.m.
Lee’s farewell to friends and family mentioned and unmentioned:
“Grieve not, nor speak of me with tears;
But laugh and talk of me as if I were beside you…
I love you so…T’was heaven here with you,” a quote by Isla Paschal Richardson.
Dearest Lee, we will never stop loving you.
McCraw Funeral Home in Lewisburg is in charge of arrangements.
Obituary originally published in the April 17, 2019 edition of The West Virginia Daily News.
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