Emily Theodosiou

Emily Elizabeth (Loennig) Theodosiou, 96, died July 19, 2019 at Meadowbrook Place in Baker City.  A celebration of Emily’s life will be held on August 3, 2019 ~ 2p.m. at Meadowbrook Place.  Friends are invited to join the family for refreshments immediately following the service.

Emily was born west of Haines, Oregon in the Muddy Creek area on February 3, 1923 to Franklin and Grace (Cruickshank) Loennig; the second of three children.  She graduated from Muddy Creek High School in 1940, and earned her elementary teaching certificate from Eastern Oregon Normal School (now Eastern Oregon University) three years later. During her time at Eastern Oregon she was President of the Associated Women Students and Pi Lambda Theta (teachers’ honorary) and was a princess of the evensong graduation ceremony. 

Emily began her teaching career at North Powder Elementary where she taught 7th and 8th grade for two years. She then returned to school to pursue a B.S., and a Secondary Teaching Certificate while trekking through the rain at the University of Oregon. After graduation, Emily taught English and Social Studies for a year at Ontario High School and then worked as the English Department Chairman and Dean of Girls at Redmond High School for four years where she enjoyed the colorful high desert.

While teaching at Redmond High School, Emily applied for a teaching position with the U.S. Defense Department’s Army Schools in Europe. Emily was accepted and became a dedicated teacher in schools in Nurnberg, Stuttgart, Berlin, Frankfurt (West Germany) and Livorno (Italy) from 1953-1965. In 1960, she was honored as “International Teacher of the Year” by the General Federation of Women’s Clubs in Washington D.C.  Emily stated that teaching and summer travel all over the world were always on her “top burner”.

Emily met her husband, Paul Theodosiou, a merchant from Athens, Greece while traveling on the Orient Express and they were married in Frankfurt in 1964. A year later they settled in Martinez, California in the San Francisco Bay Area. Emily taught and worked as a student counselor at Castlemont High School in Oakland for twenty years until she retired in 1985, ending a career of forty years of educating American youth.

In her retirement, Emily enjoyed extensive traveling, gardening, writing and playing bridge. Her husband Paul passed away in 2002, and Emily stayed in their Martinez home until she was 92 years old.

Her nephew, Jim Peters, and niece, Janet Dyke, convinced her to return to Eastern Oregon in 2015, and Emily moved into Meadowbrook Place Assisted Living in Baker City. She enjoyed her friends at Meadowbrook and attending local family gatherings.  Emily was the oldest family member at the Loennig family reunion in 2018 celebrating 155 years in Baker County.

Emily is survived by her stepdaughters, Helen Moore of Burke, Virginia and Amalia Maliki of Athens, Greece as well as many extended members of the Loennig famiiy.  

Emily was preceded in death by her sister, Flora Lou Peters and brother, Frank Loennig.

She will be laid to rest next to her husband Paul at Oakmont Memorial Park in Lafayette, California.

For those who would like to make a donation in Memory of Emily, the family suggests either the Eastern Oregon Museum or the North Powder Library through Tami’s Pine Valley Funeral Home and Cremation Services PO Box 543 Halfway, Oregon 97834. Online condolences can be shared at www.tamispinevalleyfuneralhome.com