Burdena (DeWaard) Pasenelli

  Our hearts are broken; we wanted another 20 years with her. Birdie suffered a stroke and passed away peacefully two days later on May 24, 2016.
  Born at home during an Eagle Butte, South Dakota snowstorm in 1945 with her grandma acting as midwife, Burdena was the second of five children in the Charles and Wilma DeWaard family. They soon moved to a farm in Stickney, South Dakota. An inoperable brain tumor struck Charles and the family moved to Lynden, Washington to be closer to family.
  Burdena (now affectionately known as Bird or Birdie) attended Lynden Christian School and worked almost all her spare hours helping to keep the family from deep poverty. Her father’s health continued to deteriorate and he passed away when Birdie was 15.
  Attending Skagit Valley College and then Washington State University, she pursued a degree in police science. She liked the ideas of stopping bad guys and getting equal pay for equal work (during the years when men usually got paid more). The City of Seattle police force was hiring and she signed on as a detective. Her raw talent with handguns caught the firearm instructor’s eye and soon he had her shooting in police competitions across the western United States.
  She applied for the Federal Bureau of Investigation the year after J. Edgar Hoover died. She would have been in the first-ever women’s class, but she couldn’t bear to miss out on the holidays with family and the ski season so she settled for the second class.
  During her training for the FBI at Quantico, Virginia, she met George Pasenelli, assistant chief of Waukegan Police. They were soon married and shared 42 wonderful years together.
  Bird’s career is remarkable and we will only share the highlights briefly here. If you wish to know more, visit the following website: http://tinyurl.com/hhvdtea.
  Soon after she earned her badge, Birdie was sent to search for the kidnapped Patty Hearst in Berkeley, California. She tracked down an “FBI Top Ten Most Wanted” serial murderer in the Chicago area, uncovered an $80 million Ponzi scheme, and brought terrorists and fugitives to justice. She specialized in fighting “white collar” crime, in part because her math skills were exceptional. She continued to shoot competitively and scored two “Possibles” (FBI speak for “nearly impossible”) in her career. Let’s just say that it’s called that because a human could hypothetically, potentially shoot that well in a perfect situation if everything went exactly right. Few agents have ever shot a single “Possible.”
  Due to her hard work, intelligence and care for her team, she gained many promotions. By 1992 she was head of the FBI in the state of Alaska (the first woman in FBI history to lead a state). In 1994, Birdie achieved the number two position in the FBI (again, a first for FBI women), as she served Director Louis J. Freeh in Washington, D.C., as the chief financial officer of the FBI, overseeing a $2 billion budget. She earned the Presidential Award of Meritorious Executives and she spearheaded the funding for a new FBI lab so that more law enforcement agencies across the country could have access to cutting-edge forensic capabilities.
  Her home state of Washington needed a new director and she leaped at the reality of being closer to family. In 1999 she retired from the FBI. If you go to Washington, D.C., you will find a room in the headquarters that is named in her honor. During her tenure, whenever the national media tried to disparage the integrity of the FBI, we knew it couldn’t be true because our Aunt Bird was there and she wouldn’t have stood for it.
  George and Bird moved to Tonto Verde, Arizona, where they could golf, bike and host family and friends year-round. They joined Desert Hills Presbyterian Church where Birdie served as an elder and on the new pastor search committee. Birdie’s faith in Jesus Christ was very important to her and she encouraged others to trust Him. If Birdie ever came across a lonely piano, she might just sit down and play hymns for a while.
  Birdie served for eight years as a fire commissioner for the Rio Verde Fire Department. She was also the head of the Clean-up Commission for Tonto National Forest. Travel was inserted frequently into each year. She pedaled bikes for thousands of miles to enjoy historical tours on several continents. They fished in Alaska and saw the national parks. Bird cherished her ever-extending family and kept up with even her great-nephews’ and great-nieces’ birthdays and activities, most years seeing them all at least once or twice.
  She was notoriously frugal and yet thoughtful and generous. She inspired awe and yet she was warm and approachable. She never lacked wealth as an adult, but she wasn’t pretentious or haughty because she didn’t forget her humble beginning. She could put a bank robber away by day and cook a gourmet dinner and sew a stunning quilt by night.
  She will be missed by so many close friends and family from around the country.
  Birdie is survived by her beloved husband, George Pasenelli; her sisters, Dixie (Ed) Kraght and Ruth (Roger) Bajema; her brother-in-law, Larry Mans (sister Ruby deceased); and her brother, David (Ardi) DeWaard.
  A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 4, in Desert Hills Presbyterian Church, 34605 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, AZ.
  There will be a Celebration of Life reception afterwards from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Tonto Verde Golf Club, 18401 E. El Circulo Dr., Rio Verde, AZ.
  In lieu of flowers, please make donations to: Sunshine Acres Children’s Home, 3405 N. Highley Rd., Mesa, AZ 85215, sunshineacres.org.