Lisa Marlene (Graham) Dettenrieder, age 69, of Sacramento, CA, passed away peacefully on January 26, 2024. She was lovingly surrounded by her four children who remained by her side as she faced respiratory failure and complications from a prior vocal chord injury.

Lisa was a ‘big heart.’ She was a kind and caring woman who dedicated herself to the people around her - her family, friends and, as a nurse, the patients she worked with. She helped anybody and was known to be a ‘second mom’ to many. The second of four daughters, Lisa was born in Germany on June 18, 1954; her father flew for the Air Force and was stationed there. She was raised in Santa Cruz, CA, where she grew to love the outdoors and the sunshine; the beach and the boardwalk. She visited Santa Cruz regularly throughout her life and never moved far from her childhood home.

Education was important to Lisa. She graduated from Harbor High School in Santa Cruz, CA, in 1971 and went on to earn a BA from UC Santa Barbara in Spanish in 1979 and a BS in Nursing in 1981 from UC San Francisco.

In 1978, Lisa married Robert Whitaker and started her loving family while earning her nursing degree. Lisa was dedicated to finishing what she started—she knew how to persevere. She completed her degree while pregnant with twins and launched her nursing career at Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, CA. She later became a nurse at John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek, CA, where she specialized in neonatal and postpartum care.

Lisa thoroughly enjoyed her work and loved being in service to others. Ongoing professional development was important to Lisa and she deepened her ability to help new mothers by becoming qualified as a lactation consultant and as a much-needed Spanish interpreter at her hospital. Lisa retired from John Muir in 2014.

Outside of work, Lisa loved swimming, jogging, reading, cooking, volunteering (church and hospital), and speaking Spanish. She enjoyed attending church regularly, and took a particular joy in singing hymns and inspirational songs and being in the community of her church.

Lisa was a dedicated mom. She was always there for her children and loved them unconditionally. They shared that Lisa would often add little loving notes and hearts on their napkins and slip them into their lunchboxes. She made sure to tell them that she loved them every single day. They described her as always supportive, their biggest cheerleader, and when things went awry, she would tell them, “Let’s start the day over again.” She was a caring mom and a role model of love and forgiveness.

Time with her grandchildren was precious to Lisa. She kept them active when she took care of them—she took them swimming daily—and she made things fun. She had them don aprons and figure out the menu when they cooked meals or baked goodies together.

Lisa was a highly motivated person. She was methodical in her day and always had a ‘to-do’ list—and she got everything done! She liked to keep a tidy home and her children shared how she would combine cleaning with her other love, music. They knew she was deep into cleaning when they could hear John Cougar Mellencamp’s song, ‘Hurts So Good,’ blasting away.

Lisa seemed to be wearing a perpetual pair of ‘rose-colored lenses’, always seeing the brighter side of life and never having a bad word to say about anyone. She never met a person she didn’t feel was worth being a friend to. Lisa was always positive, even when things were hard. When she had to be transported via helicopter following an accident, she was happy to say that she now could cross one thing—riding in a helicopter—off her bucket list.

Lisa was a beloved mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, and friend. She is survived by her four children: Eric Dettenrieder Jr.; Julia Whitaker; Alicia (Whitaker) Costley; Robert Ryan Whitaker; grandchildren: Zyla Costley; Gary Costley; Boston Costley; Xavier Costley; Kennedy Costley; Avery Whitaker; Aniyah Davis; and Royal Dawkins. Two of Lisa’s sisters survive her, Shelley (Graham) Schontzler and Adrienne Graham. Lisa is also survived by her stepparents, Richard and Nancy (Wilson) Lammerding and by her former spouses, Robert Marion Whitaker and Eric Dettenrieder Sr.

Lisa was preceded in death by her mother, Audrey (Ware) McCann; her father, Courtney Graham; and her sister, Debbie (Graham) Hillis.

Two events are planned to remember and celebrate Lisa’s life. The first is a memorial jog on April 6, 2024, at noon at a park (to be announced) in Sacramento, CA. The next day, April 7, a Celebration of Life will be held at Wine & Roses Winery, in Lodi, CA from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The family has requested an RSVP by March 20, 2024 for those planning to attend the Celebration of Life.

Lisa had a playful sense of humor. She always had a funny story to share and was willing to laugh at herself. She might leave us with her witty words of wisdom as we remember and celebrate her remarkable life: “Time to pour the wine and cut the cheese!”

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