DOREEN CECILIA (LARKO) VARZARI, beloved wife of the late William ""Beaver"" Varzari, passed away with her family by her side in Kelowna on Friday, July 8, 2011 at the age of 80 years.

Doreen was born in Lethbridge, Alberta on October 19, 1930, where she lived most of her early life. She attended St. Basil's School. As a young girl, she loved to dance and took ballet and tap lessons and excelled in both. She was a very skilled baton twirler and was proud of her participation in the Lethbridge Parade. She was also a cracker-jack roller skater.

In 1949 she met and married the love of her life, William (Beaver) Varzari. Together in the fifties, they started Varzari Iron, where she worked for a few years. In 1975 she and Beaver moved to Kelowna, BC where her love for jewellery led her to start her own jewellery business. She owned and operated ""Classic Gems"", located in downtown Kelowna.

She and Beaver lived a full and busy life, spending many wonderful years with their family at their home on Abbot Street on Lake Okanagan. After the passing of her husband in 1982, she chose to spend the next twenty nine years living a quiet and serene life in Kelowna.

She loved the sound of birds chirping and had numerous bird feeders outside her window. She loved hydrangeas, which were plentiful in her yard, and she loved the smell of plumeria trees, a reminder of her wonderful Hawaiian vacations from long ago.

She was tender and wise and always gracious...and she had a very generous heart. She was a wonderful mother and fun-loving grandmother affectionately known as ""BaBa"". She will be sadly missed!

Left to cherish her memory are her beloved children; Rosanne, Gerald (Rita), Gayle, Terry-Jean (Brent), her grandchildren; Jason (Amber), Andrea, Eli, Hilary, and Christopher, and her great grandchildren Chrystine and Jamie.

Doreen is also survived by two sisters, Betty Ann and Mary Lou and one brother, Ralph. She was predeceased by her parents John and Ann Larko.

A Celebration of Doreen's Life will be held at 2:00 pm on Thursday, July 14, 2011 at MARTIN BROTHERS RIVERVIEW CHAPEL, 610 4th Street South, Lethbridge.

Interment at Mountain View Cemetery.