Lillian Kayte Julow
December 10, 1927 to August 26, 2019
Lillian Ida Kayte was born in Philadelphia, PA as the fifth child of Sophie and Philip, children of Russian Jewish immigrants. Philip left and her mother worked hard to care for an ill sibling while Lily’s sister, Ada, gladly helped take care of her. Lily left home at the age of seventeen and later married George Zaetz and moved to Burlington, Vermont. They had four children; Alexis “Lexi”, David, Eric, and Heidi. They divorced, she later married Roy Julow, and they later divorced. In 1977 she moved to Atlanta, Georgia with her youngest teen daughter, Heidi. She later lived in Gainesville, Florida for about 20 years before moving back to Georgia.
Besides being a daughter, sister, wife, and mother, Lily was best known as a writer and French gourmet cook but was also an artist. She has been a radio announcer, an interior decorator, a caterer, a teacher of French Cuisine, a food writer, and, in the Atlanta area, a property manager and writer who contributed to many publications: AJC, Marietta Daily Journal, Creative Loafing and more. She was a restaurant critic, food and feature story writer for the Gainesville Sun, and wrote for many other publications. Lily was a prolific writer and developer of recipes for popular cookbooks and food magazines. She later co-authored and authored her own books; her most significant work was Vitebsk, a historical fiction, based on substantial research, about her family’s exodus from Russia.
Five years ago she moved back to Georgia where she greatly enjoyed her lovely house in Lawrenceville and made many new friends. In October 2018 she suffered a slight fracture near her hip which started a slow decline in her health. In May 2019 she began to need my assistance daily, so she moved into our home. We are very thankful for the time she was with us here; almost three months, in which she went to Bridge games every Monday and had Bridge guests over some weekends. She was delighted when we finally found a REAL French restaurant in Decatur and ate there for the second time on Thursday, August 22nd. The next morning, she had another fall. The last time she spoke was Sunday evening when we said goodnight around 9:00 pm and by 3:25 pm on Monday, August 26, she had passed, peacefully and quietly as she slept, exactly what she had hoped for, with me (Heidi) by her side. I grieve, but God has blessed me with a deep peace; He answered many of my prayers for her, and I can rejoice in that!
Lily lost her oldest child, Lexi, to cancer sixteen years ago and is survived by three children, David Zaetz, Eric Zaetz, and Heidi Briley and eleven grandchildren, Sarah Potvin, Najat Jensen, Ali Naas, Jason Zaetz, Joshua Zaetz, Jared Zaetz, Ancel Briley, Anna Briley, Katherine (Katie) Briley, Elizabeth (Beth) Briley, and Julia Briley, and four great grandchildren: Samuel Earle, Sophia Jane Carter, Amelia Carter, and Matilda Rose Zaetz.