Nanette (Nan) Coltrin Lobodinski passed away April 21, 2020 in Salt Lake City, Utah from natural causes, with her daughter by her side. Nan was born August 9, 1929 in Bakersfield, CA. She was raised in Taft, California, the only child of Fred and Jeannette Coltrin. As a young girl Nan lived in the Standard Oil of California Eleven-C housing near the desert oil wells where her father worked. Her grandfather came to California from Ohio after the Civil War and the family had one of the first ranches in Gardena, CA on Figueroa and 161st Street. A graduate of Taft Union High School, Nan attended San Jose State graduating in 1951 with a degree in Fashion Merchandising. December of her senior year at SJS she met Stanley (Stan) J. Lobodinski and even though he mistook her for a freshman and then spilled hot coffee on her new coat on their first date, they continued dating and married November 18, 1951.
Nan began her life as an army wife living at Fort Ladd AFB in Fairbanks, Alaska. Through the years she always fondly remembered the lifelong friendships formed and the primitive Quonset hut style apartments of Alaska in the 1950s. This desert flower was a fearless driver, shuttling her friends in the ice and snow when the husbands were out on field exercises. During the next 29 years and over 19 moves, Nan set up and packed up homes all over the world including Paris, France; Augusta, Ga; San Jose, Ca; Ft. Sheridan, Il; Kaiserslautern and Heidelberg, Germany; Ft. Knox, Ky.; Ft. Sill, Ok; Ft. Clayton Panama Canal Zone and Ft. Benning, Georgia.
Nan loved being the mother of four daughters: Denise, Renee, Janet and Jeanine. Wherever the family was living, Nan was always involved in her daughters’ lives being a room mother or leading a Girl Scout troop. She made sure that all the holidays were special for her daughters even in the years when her husband was serving in Korea and later in the Vietnam War.
A lifelong volunteer and homemaker, she exemplified the spirit of service to her family and to her extended family of the U.S. Army.
When Stan retired from the Army in 1980, they moved to Tampa, Florida where they would live until 2017. As an original resident of the Bayport communities, Nan loved playing tennis, walking with her neighborhood friends and betting on the ponies at Tampa Bay Downs with her dear friend Jeannie Spencer. She was a skilled quilter and created quilts for each grandchild’s birth and high school graduations.
After Stan passed, Nan moved to Marietta, Ga in 2017 and then to Salt Lake City. She was preceded in death by her husband Col. (Ret) Stanley J. Lobodinski and her daughter Renee Lobodinski Specht. She is survived by her daughters Denise Lobodinski of Marietta, Ga., Janet Scobie (Gary) of Wildwood, Mo. and Jeanine Flint (George) of Salt Lake City, Utah and seven grandchildren Allison, Meghan, Alex, Brian, Marsh, Duncan and Annie. Her two great grandchildren, Ayla and Mason, now have quilts that she made for their mothers.
Nan will be interred with her husband at Arlington National Cemetery at a later date. Donations in her memory may be to West Kern Oil Museum, 1168 Wood St, Taft, CA 93268.
