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Elizabeth Rhodes Hiser

  Elizabeth Rhodes Hiser passed away on Oct. 31, 2012, at home, in Sonoma, where she has been a resident for the past 15 years, her family at her side. She was 61.

  Born in New Bern, N.C., to Ural Milton Rhodes and Rosemary Alligood Rhodes, Liz graduated from New Bern High School, attended Louisburg Junior College, Louisburg, graduating from Wayne Community College, Goldsboro, before relocating to Charleston, S.C., where she worked as a dental assistant to Dr. Benjamin T. Kays for the next 18 years. She was an active member of the South Carolina Dental Assistants Association, serving a year as president. While in Charleston she met and married Edward Thomas Hiser, her devoted lifelong companion, and gave birth to their only child, Anna Elizabeth.

  A job transfer relocated the family to Reno, Nev., where she taught 4-year-olds at St. John’s Children’s Center for eight years, becoming known to all as Miss Liz (and crowning her husband Mr. Liz).  Yet another job transfer brought the family to Sonoma. In Sonoma, she was office manager for building contractor Bob Noble and later worked at Sonoma Market as a food demonstrator until breast cancer forced her into early retirement.

  Liz was an avid college basketball fan and the UNC Tarheels were her team. Dean Smith was one of her heroes (along with Bear Bryant and Lou Holtz). She even made a “pilgrimage” to the Dean Dome before it was officially open for events. An Eastern North Carolinian at heart, she never met a sandy beach she did not like. The Outer Banks were her little piece of heaven and a favorite summer vacation spot.

  Liz’s annual Christmas Eve “Drop In” is a family tradition. Started in Charleston as having a few friends over for her husband’s birthday, it grew into a considerable number of friends and family, an event that kicked off the Christmas celebration, including down-home cooking, her special homemade birthday cakes and lots of wine tasting. She was known and loved for her warm heart, gregarious nature, thoughtful ways, Southern wisdom and Tarheel pride. She will be missed by many whose lives she touched along the way.

  Liz is survived by husband, Edward Thomas Hiser, of Sonoma; daughter and son-in-law, Anna Elizabeth and Benjamin Douglas Carr, of Glen Ellen; and sister and brother-in-law, Rosemary R. and Thomas E. Harris of Raleigh, N.C.

  Friends are invited to attend a celebration of her life at 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012, at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, 16290 Arnold Drive, Sonoma, CA 95476.

  Donations may be made in her name to Hospice By The Bay, 190 W. Napa St., Sonoma, CA 95476.

Duggan’s Mission Chapel

Mission Cremation Service

525 W. Napa St.

Sonoma, CA

duggansmissionchapel.com