Glenda D. Zabel Obituary

A funeral service will be held on Friday, June 23, 2023, at 1:00 p.m. at Joldersma & Klein Funeral Home, 917 S. Burdick St., Kalamazoo. Friends may call on the family one hour prior to the service beginning at 12:00 p.m. noon at the funeral home. Glenda will be laid to rest next to Jack at Ft. Custer National Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to SPCA of Southwest Michigan or another local animal shelter of your choosing, in c/o the funeral home.

Age 79, passed away Wednesday morning, June 14, 2023. Glenda was born in Detroit on January 4, 1944, the daughter of Siegfried Gunter and Catherine (Wilkerson) Buisman. Glenda graduated from Southwestern High School and attended Michigan State University. She moved to Kalamazoo in 1980 and worked until her retirement as a legal assistant for local law firms. She had also spent some time working for a historical museum in Detroit. In her spare time, she enjoyed painting, stained glass art, knitting, wood carving, and gardening. She liked crafts of all kinds and was an avid collector of fossils and crystal rock specimens. She loved to travel. On February 21, 1981, she married her best friend, Jack Brent Zabel who preceded her in death on October 6, 2018, and they had 36 loving years together. Glenda is survived by her sister, Ilsa DuCharme of Ferndale, MI; several nieces and nephews; and many friends including special friends, Ken and Karen Bushouse, Pat and Ralph Corning and Sharon Epley. She is also survived by her four-legged friends, Bootsey and Copper. Besides her husband, Glenda was preceded in death by her parents and a sister-in-law, Jill Gaston.