William Joseph Zenger (10/28/1915-1/19/1984)
Bill Zenger was born in Los Angeles. He moved to Los Alamos in 1948 with his wife Nadine and children Bill, Jr., and Karen Jean. Bill served in the US Navy during WWII. He owned the Courtesy Café in Los Alamos, which he and Nadine operated until 1969. It was located on the southwest corner of Bell St. and Centennial, where Babi’s Beer Emporium is today. The Zenger’s owned the entire building including what is now Clementine Carter but was the town library, run by Elizabeth Clark and Agnes Pearson, daughters of the building’s original owner, C.H. Pearson, the owner’s apartment and three other apartments facing on Centennial.
Bill and Nadine built a house on the corner of Main St and St. Joseph. When the cafe was closed, Bill would go fishing, typically at Lake Cachuma. His and Nadine’s gravestone, in Los Alamos Cemetery, has the inscription, “Gone Fishing,” with an image of him doing just that on the gravestone. Bill was a member of the Los Alamos Valley Men’s Club and the American Legion.
Behind the café was a pumphouse, the source of water for the café and the apartments. Clothes were washed in a wringer washing machine located inside the pumphouse and hung to dry outside. There was a garage attached to the pumphouse and on the side of the garage were rabbit cages raised above the ground. Below the rabbit cages, rabbit dropping filled a bin where worms were raised for fishing. Half the men in Los Alamos would go to the Courtesy Café for breakfast before going fishing, then get worms from Bill and head out.
Billy and Jeanie both graduated from Los Alamos Elementary School and Santa Maria High School. Billy served in the Navy for four years then became a Santa Barbara County fireman for a time before moving away. For years Billy had a pen-pal love affair with Linda Lou Kanady before marrying her on October 27, 1969, in St. Anthony’s Church in Los Alamos. Jennie married the town teenage icon and her high school crush, Bobby Smith, in February 1964, also in St. Anthony’s.
Jeannie and Bobbie Smith, together with Bill and Nadine, are buried toward the bottom of Los Alamos Cemetery, on the southeast side.