Zoe Ann (Dress) Matlock

Zoe Ann Dress Matlock, 79, passed away of natural causes on Thursday, August 8, 2019. A Public Visitation will be held on Sunday, August 18 from 5-8pm in the Rose Room Chapel at Croxford Funeral Home. Burial will take place the following day, Monday, August 19 at 10:00 a.m. at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Great Falls. 

Zoe Ann Dress was born on a wintery day in Helena Montana on December 27th, 1939. Daughter of Florence Hartman Dress and William Arthur Dress, superintendent for Montana Power of Holter Dam near Wolf Creek. The two-room schoolhouse in Wolf Creek was always her favorite school.

In 1947, Zoe Ann and family moved the Great Falls division, first to Morony Dam then to Ryan Dam. There Zoe Ann began to excel in music, skating and school. At age 14, she won the Great Falls figure skating championship. She played violin at various social events around Great Falls.

At age 16, Zoe Ann began college between junior year and senior year in high school at the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. She graduated from Great Falls High School in 1957. After completing her violin studies at Eastman, she graduated from the University of Montana, Missoula in 1961. Her first job was as a music teacher for the Billings School District.

In 1963 Zoe Ann moved to California to study violin with renowned violinist Vera Barstow and joined the Pasadena Symphony, and later the San Jose Symphony. In 1964, while working at North American Aviation, she met and married David L. Matlock, an original Apollo engineer. They moved to Irvine and had a daughter, Debra in 1970.

Over the course of 55 years of marriage, Dave and Zoe Ann lived all over California in Saratoga, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria and finally Hemet. She may have lived in California, but Zoe Ann always had a special place in her heart for Montana, spending most summers on Flathead Lake at her parents’ house. Even when traveling, the Alps or some other majestic mountain range would always elicit the same response “Reminds me of Montana.’

Even so, she enjoyed traveling especially cruising the Mediterranean, Black Sea, and the Caribbean. In later years, she enjoyed sewing, collecting intriguing jewelry and debating her grandson. She finally met someone who enjoyed arguing for fun as much as she did! Zoe Ann loved regaling friends and family with funny stories mostly about...Montana.

Zoe Ann is survived by husband, Dave Matlock; daughter, Debra Matlock; son-in-law, Brad Grossman; and grandson, Matlock Grossman.

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