Deanna Dee McAtee

Deanna Dee McAtee, 80, of Washington, died April 17, 2021, at the Salina Regional Medical Center. One of six children born to Robert and Bertha Cibolski Zurfluh, Deanna was born on July 21, 1940 on a farm near Haddam, Kansas. She graduated from Haddam High School in 1958. She married Gerald Gene “Bud” McAtee on December 21, 1961. Together in 1967, they purchased the gas station, convenience store and mechanic’s garage known as “Westside Service” in Washington, Kansas, and ran it until 1985 when they sold the business. They took the business over again in 1986 and ran it through 1990. When Deanna wasn’t covering the cash register or doing the bookkeeping, she was either busy managing McAtee Retail Liquor in the Westside building at 317 West 7th Street or shuttling her children to many of their sporting events and rooting them on with the loudest cheer in the crowd. Near the time of Westside’s final closure in 1990, Deanna and Bud continued to call Washington their home. As Bud traveled throughout Kansas and Missouri as a heavy machinery operator in charge of building terraces, Deanna worked at the Washington Homestead as a nurse’s aide, as well as occasionally managing the front desk for both the Park Hill Motel and Washington Motel. Upon Bud’s passing on September 17, 1998, she eventually worked in the kitchen at the Washington County Hospital before finally retiring in the mid-2000s. Deanna kept busy throughout her adult life as a parent, grandparent, and great-grandparent. She enjoyed cooking and baking for both her family and the community, perfecting many of the Cibolski family recipes with her own touch, such as kolaches and jitrnice, and ultimately adding a few confectionaries to her baking arsenal, including an extremely wide assortment of holiday cookies and cinnamon rolls that delighted anyone who had both the pleasure of experiencing her baking skills and the understood inability to eat only one of her treats. Her love of baking reflected her love for her family. She is preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Bud; brothers, Raymond Zurfluh, Clifford “Gene”, Robert “Vern” Zurfluh, and sister Bonnie Zurfluh. She is survived by her four children, Kevin McAtee, Gregg McAtee, Traci Hattesohl and husband, Mike, all of Washington, KS and Travis McAtee of Overland Park, KS; her brother, Lonnie Zurfluh and wife, Cynthia of Starke, FL; her sisters-in-law, Delores Zurfluh of Salina, KS, Barbara Jean Zurfluh of Carthage, TX; her grandchildren, Brandon and Cody Hattesohl of Overland Park, KS and Tiffany Garcia and husband Trevin of Lawrence, KS; and her great-granddaughter, Elise Hattesohl of Overland Park, KS. Funeral services will be held at a later date. A memorial fund has been established and will be designated later. Contributions may be sent in care of Ward Funeral Home. To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Deanna Dee McAtee, please visit our flower store.