Lois Ina Cuffman

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, May 11, 2019 at 11 a.m. at the Davis Babcock Funeral Home, 4154 Clark Avenue, Willoughby, Ohio for Lois Ina Licklider Cuffman, 99, of Mentor, who rejoined her beloved husband of 56 years, Jack, on February 12, 2019. She died at Atria of Mentor, where she had resided for three years. Pastor Doug Browning of Fowler’s Mill Christian Church will officiate at the service.
Lois was born on November 23, 1919, in Jakes Prairie, Missouri, to George and Jessie (Jackson) Licklider, the youngest of six children in a third generation farm family. As a child, she rode a horse to a one-room schoolhouse, as part of a class of three.
In 1930, the family farm was auctioned off, a victim of the Dust Bowl, and the family moved to Willoughby, Ohio. Lois graduated from Willoughby Union High School in 1937, and from White Cross Beauty School in 1939. She worked as a beautician in the Nell Page Beauty Salon in Willoughby before opening her own business in Mentor in 1944.
On February 27, 1946, she married John D. (Jack) Cuffman of Ashtabula, and they built a home in Mentor that remains in the family. Jack, a U.S. Army Air Corps veteran in World War II, served as plant engineer at the Ohio Rubber Company, and later as Vice President of William S. Watkins Consulting Engineers. They were active members of First Christian Church in Willoughby for several years.
Lois loved to bake, and was famous for her cake decorating talents. In their later years, she and Jack travelled throughout the U.S., especially to state capitals and National Parks.
She is survived by her daughter, Diane Ryder (Ed) of Chagrin Falls; son Gary (Pattie) Cuffman of Willoughby; grandchildren Megan Snider (Matt) of Columbus, Kate Young (David) of Spartanburg, SC, Nicole Cuffman of Wickliffe, Kelly Hollingsworth (Ryan) of Willowick, and Jessie Cuffman of Mentor; and great-grandchildren Bridget, Clare, and Norah Snider, and Jack and Luke Young. Family meant everything to her.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Jack, sons Ken and Glen Cuffman, sisters Amy Gronhalt and Opal Yates, and brothers Russell, Buell and Marty Licklider.
The family would like to thank the caring staff at Atria, and Hospice of the Western Reserve, for the loving care they gave Lois during her declining years. Instead of flowers, the family recommends donations to Hospice of the Western Reserve, 17876 St. Clair Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44110.