Le Hanssler

Le Ella Hanssler (“Nancy”) passed away on December 11, 2022 at 89 years of age. She was born in Yreka, CA on September 23, 1933 and spent her formative years living in different towns across Northern California due to her Dad’s job (Lee Waddell) in the U.S. Forest Service. Her beloved mother, Queen Waddell, was not only her parent but her teacher – educating Le and her peers in one-room schoolhouses spanning kindergarten through eighth grade! After graduating from Weed High School, she moved to central California to attend college and later married her first husband, Edward C. Smith. After moving to Los Angeles, they had two children. Le worked at Parke-Davis and then Union Oil Company. It is at this latter job—one that she held for decades—that she met her treasured second husband, William “B” Hanssler.

She also met a vast array of friends who brought her years and years of joy. In the 1970s, Bill and Le moved from Torrance to Rancho Palos Verdes, building a home surrounded by a flourishing garden with ferns, roses, begonias, impatiens, bougainvillea and more. She loved to entertain on any occasion in her backyard, preferably with live music or Cousin Frank’s karaoke machine. Le loved to walk at the crack of dawn with the girls in the neighborhood. Later, that morning routine became going to see the Starbucks crew in her red “Go Go” scooter with her pup and trusted companion Tiger in the back basket and bestie Renae walking by her side. She led a full and good life, accentuated with a fiery and spicy personality that everyone loved and enjoyed.

She left this world after a long battle with Lewy Body Dementia and was adored by all who cared for her in the last years of her life. Le cherished them in return. Le was preceded in death by William L. Hanssler, Lee C. Waddell, Queen A. Waddell, Dorothy Comer (sister), Jeff Gilmore (son) and survived by her daughter Stacy Le Smith, her son Edward Scott Smith, wife Jeanette, grandson Hunter, stepson Scott Hanssler and innumerable friends and family.