Zona Gale Sarff

Zona Gale Denton (Dennis) Sarff, 98, passed away on March 4, 2021. She was born on January 25, 1923, in Bladen, Nebraska. Her parents, Glenn and Maysel Denton moved to Hysham, Montana in 1924 where Glenn was principal of the school and athletics coach; and her mother taught in the elementary school. In 1937 the family moved to Miles City, Montana where her father was the Assistant Principal of Custer County High School. Zona Gale attended Montana State College until the beginning of World War II. She then worked at a newspaper office and taught dancing in Billings, Montana until going to Minneapolis to attend the Beck School of Radio. She worked in her hometown radio station as an announcer and continuity writer until 1946. She was married to Everett J. Dennis of the X/J cattle ranch south of Miles City, MT. In 1947 the couple attended her father's Alma Mater the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. Their first son Marcus James was born there in 1950. A move was made back to Montana in 1953 where son John Leonard was born in Bozeman. A need for an agronomist by the Methodist Church drew the family to the mission field in Brazil from 1954 to 1959, where they established a Rural Center in the interior state of Parana. Returning to the states in '59, and settling in Manhattan, Kansas, Zona Gale finished her B.A. Degree in Modern Languages. She worked with the Peace Corps volunteers going to Brazil for two summers with the University of Florida. In 1966 the family moved to Omaha, Nebraska, where she pursued a Master's Degree in the Education of the Hearing Impaired, a goal she had, had for many years. After graduation, she taught at the Nebraska School for the Deaf, the Iowa School for the Deaf, and in 1972 headed up a pilot program in eight Nebraska counties for deaf children. In 1973 a move was made back to Manhattan, where she was an instructor of the Hearing Impaired for School District #383 and worked there until her retirement in 1991. Her husband Everett was killed in an accident in his small plane in 1988. In 1990 she was reunited through a class reunion in Montana with her High School Sweetheart, Arlin Sarff, they married in 1991. He had worked for Boeing in Seattle for many years and the couple divided their time between Manhattan and Seattle for three years, then moved back here in 1994 to their home on the lake. Zona Gale was a member of the Kansas Speech and Hearing Association, the Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf, Kansas Educators of the Hearing Impaired, Soroptomist Club, Alpha Omicron Pi Sorority, and Phi Gamma Delta national fraternity for graduate women, Rho Chapter. She also served as President of the Women's Aglow Fellowship in Manhattan from 1985 to 1989. She and Arlin moved to Meadowlark Hills retirement center in 2008. She served on the Spiritual Life Committee there for two years. She was a member of the First Methodist Church in Manhattan. She is survived by her two sons Marcus (Lynn) Dennis of York, Nebraska, and John "Kit" L. (Monica) Dennis of Los Angeles, California. Four grandchildren and one great-grandchild on the way. A memorial service will be held on Friday, March 19, 2021, between 2:00 PM and 4:00 PM at the Carlson's Irvin-Parkview Funeral Home and Cremation. Arrangements have been entrusted to Carlson's Irvin-Parkview Funeral Home and Cremation.