Edna May Zoulek, passed away in her sleep at the Manor House, an ACTS Retirement Community in Seaford on May 6, 2025. She had happily resided at the Manor House with old friends and new acquaintances for the last six years of her life.
A proud “first generation American”, Edna was born on Sept. 25, 1926, in Esmond, Rhode Island. She was the daughter of William Henry Passano and Polly (Forrest) Passano and the granddaughter of Dell and Rose Passano and Sam and Martha Forrest.
Edna was blessed with a bright mind and a kind and generous heart. She was an outgoing and friendly person who remembered the name and something good about every person she had ever met. It was an amazing gift that she happily used every day of her life.
Edna grew up playing in her grandfather’s apple orchard and beside the mill pond in her village and every evening, she could be found curled up in a chair, reading a good book. It was her love of reading that opened her eyes to the larger world beyond her village, and at a very tender age, she began making a list of all the places that she hoped to visit someday.
She was an excellent student who was well-spoken and articulate, and she won high school debates at the state and national level. She also won a full scholarship to the University of Rhode Island where she studied Library Science.
She met her future husband, William Lee Zoulek, at a USO dance in Newport, RI. She was a charming hostess and he was a handsome Naval Recruit. They were married in 1946, when he returned home from the war in the Pacific, and their life together lasted for 55 years. Together they lived on three continents. From the hustle and bustle of city life in St. Louis, MO, to gracious southern living in Chattanooga, TN, to a spacious hacienda and dirt roads in Argentina and an orderly life in Germany, Edna took each move in her stride, immersing herself in the culture of each place and making lifelong friends all over the world.
Edna and Bill were the parents of two daughters and as a family they lived in four states and two foreign countries. They travelled to 49 of our 50 states and to many countries in Europe. They even ventured “behind the Iron Curtain” to visit family members in Czechoslovakia.
At three separate times in her life, Edna lived in Seaford and she was always happy and comfortable in this rural part of Delaware. The first time that the family moved to Seaford, in the summer of 1967, she volunteered to help set up a library for the newly desegregated Frederick Douglas Elementary School. When it was in place and ready to welcome students, including her youngest daughter, she left that position in good hands and did some substitute teaching for the Seaford School District.
In 1971, Edna and her family were chosen to represent the state of Delaware at the All-American Family Pageant in Lehigh Acres, FL. Each state sent one family to this televised national competition. It was an amazing week of planned activities, some that were competitive and others that were just for fun, and she was so proud of each member of her family and this honor bestowed on them by the state of Delaware.The Zouleks were a good example of a family held together by traditional family values and their love and respect for each other, and at the end of the week, they were named one of the top five families in this national competition.
The following year, Bill was offered the opportunity to move to Germany with his work and the family happily moved to Europe where they spent the next four years exploring the continent. In 1976, they moved back to Seaford and Edna became a librarian for the Seaford Public Library. She enjoyed interacting with people of all ages and backgrounds and she happily worked there for the next 10 years.
When Bill took an early retirement from DuPont, Edna retired from the library, and they travelled extensively in this country. On one of their trips to the southwest, they visited Ft. Davis, TX, and fell in love with the high desert and the starry skies. In 1992, they decided to pull up stakes and move there. To stay in touch with family and friends and to record everything about this amazing adventure, Edna began to write and publish a “blog” called “It’s Never Too Late”. She wrote about all the new things she was experiencing while living in a stone cabin on a mountain in the high desert. The local chamber of commerce liked it so much that they placed a link to her articles on the Ft. Davis home page. People from all over the world began writing to her and asking her more questions about life in the desert. She loved everything about her life in that fascinating place, and she stayed in Texas for 20 years until her advancing age and declining health brought her back to the loving embrace and physical support of her family on the east coast.
Edna was preceded in death by her parents and grandparents; her beloved husband, William Lee Zoulek in 2001; and her younger brother, Robert H. Forrest.
She is survived by her two daughters and their husbands: Linda Zoulek Houseal and her husband, Russell A. Houseal, and Dr. Susan M. Bafford, DNP, MSN-Ed, BSN-RN and her husband, Richard A. Bafford, Jr., as well as her five grandchildren: Alanna G. Smith, Adam Z. Smith (Hillary), Adrienne L. Curtis (Daniel), Matthew L. Bafford (Vivian Coyan) and Arek W. Smith. Edna is also survived by two great-granddaughters: Emma and Charley Curtis, and two step great-granddaughters: Gwyneth and Alex Coyan. To all these people, and her dear friends and caregivers, Edna has bequeathed her faith in God, her spirit of adventure and her appreciation of life and this beautiful planet that we all call our home.
A private memorial gathering will be held at a later date.
Messages of Condolence may be left on the Cranston Funeral Home website.
The family suggests that in lieu of flowers, Memorial Gifts may be made to the “American Heart Association” by visiting them online at: www.heart.org/health.