Cleo Delight Delaney

Published 9:22 am Monday, August 27, 2018

Nov. 19, 1924 – Aug. 15, 2018

Cleo Delight (Best) Delaney was born in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, on November 19, 1924, to George and Nettie Best. She succumbed to cancer on August 15, 2018, at her home in Redmond, Oregon.

At the age of seventeen, Cleo left home to become a typist in Washington, D.C. She ended up attending nursing school at the Gallinger Hospital and became a nurse in the Navy. As her career grew in the field of psychiatric nursing, she later worked at the Monroe State Penitentiary, Harborview Hospital, and in private practice.

Cleo met and married Robert Joseph Delaney in 1953, and she raised six children as the family followed his career to different locations. They finally settled in Washington State in 1962. They divorced in 1974 and she moved to the Laurelhurst neighborhood in Seattle.

After the divorce, Cleo proceeded to travel the world with her friends and children by her side. She remained very close with friends she made in Ireland and Belize.

Cleo was a wonderful mother, grandmother, sister and friend…an artist, gardener, hiker, traveler, dog-lover, writer, fine book-collector, reader, dancer, genealogist, psychiatric nurse, au courant in world news and a wonderful conversationalist.

Cleo was the second eldest of seven children and is survived by her brother, Ralph; her sister, Madeline; her half-brother, Marvin; her six adult children, Mary, Teresa, Edward, Charles, Roberta and Moira, and six grandchildren, Nick, Michael, Annika, Ann, Grace and Liam.

Donations in honor of Cleo Delight Delaney may be made to Partners In Care Hospice of Bend, Oregon, or Brightside Animal Shelter, of Redmond, Oregon.

Baird Funeral Home is handling arrangements.