Lois 'LoLo' Adele Traeger Thompson

Lois “LoLo” Adele Traeger Thompson of Sandpoint, Idaho, passed away on February 8, 2020, following an extremely long and difficult illness. 

LoLo was born on October 7, 1932 to Fred W. and Elinor (Meissner) Traeger of Des Plaines, Illinois. She had one sibling, her older brother, David A. Traeger. She graduated from Maine Township High School in Park Ridge, Illinois, in 1950, and then advanced her education while attending the University of Illinois, Northwestern University, and also Millikin University. 

In March of 1954, LoLo married longtime sweetheart, Roger Winston Thompson of Park Ridge. They had two children: Scott Jeffrey Thompson and Bonnie Jeanne Thompson. Roger, Lois, and their kids lived in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, until Roger received his law degree from the University of Illinois in 1961. That same year, Roger accepted a position with the Lincoln, Illinois, law firm of Robert J. Woods, and the Thompson family moved to the Land of Lincoln. The two attorneys later formed the partnership of Woods & Thompson. Roger Thompson’s legal career included serving as Logan County Public Defender (1967-1972) and later as State’s Attorney of Logan County (1972-1980). 

LoLo was active in various clubs while living in Lincoln: Junior Woman’s Club, League of Women Voters, PEO Sisterhood, Lintiquers and various bridge clubs. She enjoyed knitting, sewing, drawing and calligraphy, yard work, sudoku and working with numbers. Her employment history included working as a field representative for the University of Michigan Survey Research Center; working in the Inheritance Tax Departments of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office in Springfield and Chicago; working as the main receptionist for Crescent Cardboard Company in Wheeling, Illinois; becoming a licensed real estate agent for Century 21 and First United Realties in Palatine, Illinois; and becoming a licensed certified nursing assistant and caregiver in Bonner County, Idaho. In her later years, she especially enjoyed socializing with her friends at the Sandpoint Area Senior Center. She took great pride in looking presentable and was beautiful inside and out. 

LoLo was preceded in death by her parents and her brother, and also by her former husband, Roger W. Thompson. Her children, Scott and Bonnie, survive her. 

Lolo left a message to all who knew her in the form of a poem. She wrote, “I want you all to know what a wonderful life I’ve had with wonderful family and friends growing up — remembering nothing bad. I loved to laugh and loved to smile all of the day through. I loved to watch my kids play and to see them learning, too. And now that I’m no longer here, there’s something else I see. I never really knew before how much you ALL meant to me.”

A celebration of life will be held for LoLo at a pending future date. She was an extremely positive, strong, and amazing woman, a living representation of all that’s good and kind in this world. God bless lovely LoLo through eternity.