Rosa Adeline McDonald Lasswell, 85, of Visalia, California, passed away peacefully with family by her side on October 7, 2013 in Visalia.

Rosa was born in Long Beach, California on May 30, 1928 to her father Clifford McDonald and mother, Ariel McDonald. Rosa was an only child. She went to high school at South Pasadena High and graduated in 1947. Rosa married one and only love of her life, Donald Lasswell on March 5, 1949. Together they had two beautiful daughters, Maria and Sandie. She loved being a mother and wife and took great pride and joy in her family. They traveled to new and exciting places often and always at the spur of the moment. Together, she and her husband were involved with the Lyons Club in Three Rivers, California. They enjoyed dances, being with friends and traveling together to visit family. Her husband passed in July 1976. She demonstrated great strength, integrity, and independence after being widowed so young.

Her children and grandchildren learned about good character and fairness through her daily actions. She was incredibly devoted to her mother and lovingly cared for her for 24 years. Rosa worked at the Bank of America branch in Visalia for more than two decades and was a member at St Pauls Church. In the last 11 years of her life Rosa showed great patience and determination as she lived with the effects from a stroke. Despite her inability to walk she continued to enjoy life; spending time daily with her daughters, visits from her grandchildren, meeting and falling in love with her great-grandchildren and deeply touching the lives of people she continued to meet.

Rosa is preceded in death by her parents and her husband. She is survived by her daughter Maria (Rodger) Round; daughter Sandie (Mike) Cote; four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews. Mom, grandma, GG, will forever be 'a thousand winds that blow, a diamond glint on snow, the sunlight on ripened grain and the gentle autumn rain' she is everywhere and with us always.

Visalia Times-Delta, October 11, 2013