Lena Catherine Petty, 105, died peacefully and gracefully in her sleep on January 13, 2026 in Vancouver, Wash. Lena lived in Humboldt County for 91 years until moving to the Pacific Northwest in 2011. She is remembered for her kindness and empathy, zest for life and sense of humor, abundant energy, prodigious memory, and warm welcoming smile.

Lena was born on June 19, 1920 on her parents’ farm above the Eel River in Holmes Flat and baptized Madalena Caterina Sequestri. Her Aunt Nettie called her “Lena” from the beginning, and the name stuck. Lena’s parents, Tito Lino Sequestri and Rosalia Brambani, emigrated from the Lake Como area of Northern Italy in the early 1900s. Tito was a hand bucker and crosscut sawyer for Pacific Lumber Company. Lena lost her father at age 5, when he was drowned in the flooding Eel while helping to save boats used for crossing to the work site at Shively. Her mother followed him in death from pneumonia 5 years later. Two young brothers died in early childhood.

Lena often spoke of the intense poverty that her family experienced during the years after Tito’s death as her mother strove to raise three young children. The struggle seemed to nurture Lena’s curious nature as she described happy memories spent with her brother Pietro Lino (Peter Lee) and sister Maria Domenica (Mary). More than 90 years later she still recalled their two-story farmhouse, the two-room Holmes school house, and train and bus rides into Fortuna and Eureka. She remembered visiting a gypsy camp on the river bank where she found a tube of lipstick, and walking with her brother and sister out to Highway 101 in the Redwoods to watch the Native American marathon runners.

After Rosalia’s death in 1931, the three Sequestri children were taken in by different relatives. Lena moved to Eureka to live with her mother’s first cousin, Carlo (Charlie) Maffia, his wife Mary Albini and their sons Sero (Sag), Rinaldo (Nard) and Carlo (Charlie) in their home on West Clark Street. A lasting memory of that time was Nard teaching her to drive so she could get a hardship driver’s license when she was 15. She drove for her “Papa and Mamma Maffia”, going even as far as San Francisco which was a two-day trip in those days. The anxiety of making it up hills like Table Bluff haunted her for the entire trip. When she got her first Oregon Driver’s License at age 91, the clerk told her she had never given a license to someone who had been driving for more than 70 years. Lena passed the difficult test on the first try. She drove until she was 97, turning in her last license on the same day Saudi Arabia gave women the right to drive. Always interested in current events, Lena said she thought that was a fair trade.

She fondly remembered making ravioli with Mamma Maffia and strolling arm and arm together for evening passeggiate around Eureka’s Little Italy. She told stories of the lively neighborhood of Italians, Irish, Germans, Greeks and Czechoslovakians, and vividly remembered the horrible night when the Colivas grocery store burned down. She loved taking the streetcar to get ice cream at the Bon Boniere in what is now Old Town. Every year before Christmas she and Mamma Maffia carried sacks of oranges to give to tuberculosis patients at the county hospital. They carried the heavy sacks on the streetcar out Myrtle Avenue, and continued up the Harrison Street hill on foot. In the summers she joined her brother and sister on her beloved Zio Tony Albini’s ranch at Alton and later in Ferndale, happy to be with her siblings and to help Tony with his chores. Every time Lena rode on old 101 past the eucalyptus trees at Alton, she reminded us that we were driving over Tony’s carrot patch. For many years she joined Tony’s family in Ferndale for annual sausage making.

After her first years in the small Holmes school house, Lena attended Jefferson Elementary and Eureka Junior and Senior High Schools, graduating in 1938. After graduation she attended Eureka Business College and was hired at S.H. Kress as head floor walker. During World War II she became the ticket agent at the Greyhound Bus Lines, a job she loved because she heard stories of other places and was even allowed to drive an empty bus occasionally. In the early 1960s she worked in sales at Daly Brothers’ Department Store, starting in the men’s department. She managed the Daly’s Fortuna store for a while before returning to be assistant manager in the Bargain Center. In the mid-1960s she was offered a newly created job in the accounting department at the Eureka City Schools where she worked until retirement in 1988. She loved all her jobs, never leaving because she didn’t like them but for a new opportunity. Until she moved to Oregon in 2011 she met Eureka High classmates and former coworkers for lunch every month.

The outbreak of World War II affected Lena deeply, as it did her entire generation. She described collapsing to the floor when she heard about the Pearl Harbor attack on the radio while changing her bed that December morning. She knew her brother was in the Navy somewhere near Hawaii. He was safe then but would later lose a leg in the attack and sinking of his ship, the USS Monsson, during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942.

At Christmas, 1943, Lena began dating the older brother, Reginald, of two close friends from high school, Frances and Durward Petty. A few weeks later at the end of January 1944, Lena drove with Reg’s parents Charles and Irene to visit Reg at Camp Adair near Corvallis, OR. There they decided spontaneously to drive to Vancouver, WA and be married by a justice of the peace. They did not tell their own children until they were nearly adults themselves about this quick courtship, fearing it might set a bad example. But because Lena knew Reg’s family so well by then, she felt like she already knew him. She traveled with him during his medical training to Illinois and Texas until he received orders to ship out to the Philippines. Always ready for adventure, Lena drove their convertible back to Eureka alone.

In the early 1950s Lena and Reg owned a meat market at 5th and L until they sold it so Reg could take over a Fuller Brush distributorship. In 1958 Reg became an insurance salesman, first for MetLife and then The Travelers. During these years Lena took on a few side hustles. For years she made potato salad from her own recipe for most of the markets in Eureka and Arcata. Every week she set up an assembly line of kids and friends to peel boiled potatoes and hard-boiled eggs, chop celery and mix the condiments. All measurements were done by Lena’s eye, no recipe. She sold Irish Sweepstakes Tickets, an illegal endeavor at the time. She also worked for a while for Gallup Polls, interviewing people in their homes. She told stories of meeting people in alleys to sell tickets and of interviewing interesting people, including her first encounter with a Buddhist. “A Buddhist!” she said, thrilled by the new experience. She and Reg managed these enterprises as a team in their home on 8th Street, where Lena lived for 65 years.

After Reg’s sudden death in 1970, Lena was introduced by friends to Alfred “Al” Foster because they were both great dancers. Al became her companion and dancing partner for 30 years. They were well known on the Dixieland Jazz Festival circuit where onlookers loved to watch their graceful, close and fast West Coast Swing style. They could be seen dancing in Eureka at the Moose Lodge, the Friendship Circle and to their favorite band, the Hall Street Honkers, at the Red Lion.

Lena’s love of travel must have begun on those early train rides to Eureka from Holmes. She made many trips to Europe alone and with family and friends. She especially enjoyed time in Switzerland with her son and his family, where she also made several new friends. Highlights of her trips included seeing cousins and visiting her mother’s village, Garzeno above Lake Como. She also spent a memorable vacation with friends in the Valle Maggia above Locarno on Lago Maggiore. Her unequalled stamina was seen when she hiked thousands of feet to one of the tallest dams in Switzerland. Lena’s remarkable memory and love of learning never waned. She chronicled her trips, making detailed notes on all the sights and monuments. At age 87, she traveled twice to Italy and toured museums and ruins with equal interest, showing a keen appreciation for art and history—and gelato for breakfast.

Lena actively volunteered in the Eureka community. She sold annual subscriptions to the Community Concerts series, volunteered for the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, and helped serve lunch weekly at the St. Vincent de Paul Dining Facility. She was a member of the Sons of Italy, the Italian Catholic Federation and the Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. She helped host the Redwood Coast Jazz Festival (now the Redwood Coast Music Festival). On her own she often spent her lunch hours visiting people she knew who were in a hospital or nursing home.

Lena described herself as a shy child. She learned to lead with her famous smile, breaking the ice with everyone she met. In the mornings she faithfully visited local coffee shops, first Deb’s until it closed, then the 305 and finally The Pantry, to enjoy tea and toast while reading the three newspapers she bought every day. She made many friends during these morning sojourns. Over the years more than one checked up on her if she failed to show up for a couple of mornings. After retirement, she followed these outings with time at the Adorni Center gym, long afternoon walks and ending with tea at Ramone’s or Border’s Books.

Lena was observant of those around her, accepting their failures and quirks, though quick to point out ways to improve. She was definite in her opinions but kind and often funny in their delivery. Her secret power was helping people find and accept love, making friends everywhere she went. “Never go to sleep angry,” she would say. She enjoyed mentoring young people, and many called and visited her for advice over the years. In recognition of that gift, she and Reg (posthumously) were honored in 1973 by the National CYO for their work as advisers to Catholic youth. She followed current events avidly, volunteering for many years as a poll worker for the elections office. She enjoyed all music, babied her tart cherry tree in the backyard that she grew from a cutting, organized long camping trips and always kept a suitcase ready for travel. Above all she loved her family, her Italian Heritage and Catholic Faith, and Eureka. Within minutes of meeting her, people would hear that she was from “Eureka, California, in the Redwoods, on the Coast.”

In 2011 Lena moved to Lake Oswego, Oregon to live near her daughter. At 91 she was ready for a new adventure and was often found surrounded by a group of friends in the social lounge of her retirement community. Another move in 2023 took her to Vancouver, Wash., back where she had first begun her married life.

In addition to her parents and young brothers, Lena outlived her brother Peter Lee Sequestri and sister Mary McManus, her Maffia foster parents and brothers, her husband Reginald Petty, her long-time companion and dancing partner Alfred Foster, her daughter-in-law Tana Lyn Wells, and most of her generation of family and friends. She is survived by her son David of Etoy, Switzerland; her daughter Diana and husband John Bosshardt of Vancouver, Wash.; her grandson Damien and wife Kirsten of Los Angeles; her niece Joanne Sequestri Kratzwald and nephew Tom Smith; grandnephew Guy Smith and grandnieces Debbi Logue Lal and Kitty Bryan; several generations of cousins in the extended Maffia and Brambani families; and many friends from several generations. Barbara Maffia Westlake, Lynn Maffia McKenna and Linda Albini Beatty were not only her “foster nieces” but close friends.

The family are grateful to Gigi and Julia Bittar, Evelia Lim and Casey Heist of G&J In Home Care who cared for Lena in her home in Lake Oswego for several years, and to the dedicated staff at Touchmark at Fairway Village Memory Care in Vancouver. Her final days were greatly eased by Providence Hospice of Portland. Those who wish to make gifts in Lena’s memory are invited to contribute to the Sequoia Humane Society (6073 Loma Ave., Eureka, CA 95503), the St. Vincent de Paul Dining Facility (P O Box1386, Eureka, CA 95502), or the Redwood Coast Music Festival (P O Box 314, Eureka, CA 95502).

A rosary will begin at 10:30 a.m., followed by mass and reception, on April 25 at St. Bernard’s Catholic Church, 615 H St., Eureka. Lena will be interred at Oceanview Cemetery, in a private ceremony.

###

The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Lena Petty’s family. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.