Elaine Ridolph
September 29, 1942 ~ October 19, 2025
Born in:
Jersey City, NJ
Resided in:
Smithtown, NY
Elaine Ridolph, 83, died peacefully on Sunday, October 19, 2025, at Gurwin Nursing Center in Commack, NY. She was formerly of Bearsville, NY.
Elaine is survived by her husband, Ronald, of Kingston, NY; her son, Gary (and wife Lisa) of Smithtown, NY; her two grandchildren, Gina and Gary, of Providence, RI; sister Lynn Zeller (and husband Bill Slack) and brothers Jim Zeller (and wife Lauren) and Bob Zeller; brother-in-law Jack Ridolph (and wife Susan) and sister-in-law Dee Karpel (and husband George); and many, many nieces, nephews, and cousins, including her maid of honor, Anne (Williams) Fonseca. Elaine also had eight half-sisters and brothers through their common father Dave Zeller, with one surviving half-sister, Lois Sievewright of Jackson, NJ. Elaine was pre-deceased by her son Kevin, brother Eugene and nephews Scott and David. Elaine also had two sets of “adopted” grandchildren, Ryan and Cooper Werrbach, and Victoria, Julia and Bobby DiFiore.
Elaine was born in Jersey City, NJ in September 1942, the first child of mother Elnora (Lesnock), originally of St. Benedict, PA, and her father, Dave Zeller (born Susskind) in New York City. (A number of years ago, Gary’s genealogical research revealed Dave had in fact three families, the last two overlapping…) After a brief move to Islip, Elnora and Dave settled in at 2012 Bellmore Ave in N. Merrick, LI. The Zeller kids were the luckiest to have Elaine as their older sister – they learned so much from her and could always count on her. Elaine attended Mepham High School and graduated Class of 1960 (with her lifelong friend, Linda (Chapin) Fiore, now of Arizona). Elaine had planned to join the US Navy after graduation, but instead took a bookkeeping job at Sears department store in Hicksville, NY, where her uncle Howie Wellbrock worked.
It was at Sears where she met Ron, who had been working there for a few years. They started dating in the Summer of 1961, got engaged at Christmas that year, and married on September 1, 1962. That same month, Ron became a policeman for Nassau County. After a brief stint in an apartment in West Babylon, they bought their first house in 1963 at 75 Deauville Blvd in Copiague. Son Gary was born in January 1964, followed soon after by son Kevin in April 1965. The kids went to Deaville Gardens Elementary School right across the street, and enjoyed that era’s childhood freedom of unsupervised play. They moved to Smithtown in May 1974 to a bigger house, property and pool. They lived there until after Ron’s retirement in 1986, when they custom-built their retirement dream home, the aforementioned “Pandarosa” in Bearsville NY, just outside of Woodstock. Their “retirement honeymoon” was dealt a terrible blow, however, in May 1988 when son Kevin was riding home on a brand-new motorcycle, and was tragically killed by a car that turned in front of him. His best friend, Bobby Ryan, who was sitting right behind him, lived but lost part of his leg.
During her days in Smithown, Elaine took a adult ed Travel Agent’s course, and was such a natural at it, the teacher hired her to work for his agency called Travel Bug. She worked there for many years, enjoying too the many travel perks she got, and was able to go all over the globe. When they moved to Bearsville, Elaine worked as the office manager for Tiffany Travel in Kingston for several more years. When the PC/ Internet age came along and much of the travel agency business became DIY, Tiffany eventually closed its doors. Elaine then went into semi-retirement, working part time as an office manager / bookkeeper for a local small real-estate office.
While Elaine had some chronic medical issues throughout her life, in 2015, things got more serious. She was diagnosed with stomach cancer, and was treated with chemotherapy and surgery. This was largely successful, but she did have some lingering effects from the chemo. In 2017, she had a gallbladder infection, which quickly led to sepsis, and an aborted surgical attempt to remove it. A follow-up surgery to remove it turned into a 7-hr marathon. It was discovered then that the root cause of her infection was a blockage of her biliary duct, and they attempted two different techniques to remove it, both unsuccessful, and ultimately did a successful biliary by-pass. However, Elaine was never quite the same. Between this and the prior chemo, she started developing some verbal difficulties as well as having terrible neuropathy in her feet, affecting her ability to balance and walk. She eventually fell and broke her femur, and three months in rehab were unsuccessful in getting her to walk again, and she was wheelchair bound thereafter.
At this point, living long-term in their three-story A-frame style house was not going to work, plus Ron was going through health issues of his own then, so it was decided to move her down to Long Island to The Bristal at Lake Grove, an assisted-living facility right near Gary. She was initially put in their Memory Unit as it offered more supervision. This worked out well, and she had a decent quality of life there for about two years, enjoying most getting out to Gary and Lisa’s house for Sunday dinners. She still had a few incidents of rolling out of bed, and two or three mini-strokes/TIAs which further impacted her ability to speak. She ultimately had a more serious fall out of her wheel chair right before Thanksgiving 2024, which landed her in Stony Brook Hospital for a week, followed by Momentum Rehab for three months, and ultimately at Gurwin Nursing Center since late Feb, where she was well taken care of (in part too by her son Gary who fed her dinner most every night).
Elaine loved to read, go to Broadway shows and see Tom Jones and her other favorite singers in concert. And aside from her travel professional work, she was president of the Nassau County Police Wives organization for many years. During their Smithtown years, Elaine and Ron were very active in the Model A Ford Club of LI, owning a 1931 sedan themselves, and which Gary and Lisa used prominently in their wedding in 1983. Elaine enjoyed driving (fast) and was known for her lead-foot (as well as her legendary handling of any State Troopers who occasionally pulled her over). She was a great cook, from the simple Hamburger Helper, Rice-a-Roni or Ambrosia back in the 70’s, to many fancier dishes or comfort food like her beef stew, great soups like French Onion, of course anything Italian, and oh those Pumpkin Breads.
We will all be missing you very much, but hope you’re back talking up a storm, and reunited with all your loved ones who’ve been waiting for you to join them.
Services
Visitation: Sunday, October 26, 2025 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Branch Funeral Home Smithtown
190 E. Main St.
SMITHTOWN, NY 11787
Second Visitation: Sunday, October 26, 2025 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Branch Funeral Home Smithtown
190 E. Main St.
SMITHTOWN, NY 11787
Mass: Monday, October 27, 2025 9:45 am
St Patrick's RC Church (SMT)
280 E. Main St
Smithtown, NY 11787
Interment: Monday, October 27, 2025 11:30 am
Pinelawn Memorial Park
2030 Wellwood Avenue
FARMINGDALE, NY 11735
You are my best friend’s mom. A kind hearted, loving mother. Mothers are forever! You will be missed! God be with you till we meet again!
Love,
Andrew, Becky, Sam, Ben and Rachel