Alta M. Rymer

Born and raised in San Diego, Alta married at age 17 to Keith Rymer. They were married for 54 years at the time of Keith’s death. They had four children, Sharon Ann (deceased as infant), Timothy Rymer (Therese) of San Diego, Tracy Rymer (Mitzi) of Friant, CA and Becky Cox (Jim) of Charlottesville, VA. Survived by 4 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband Keith Rymer; her brothers Howard Bickford; Merrill Bickford; David Bickford; and Richard Bickford and her sister Rachel Leinart.

Alta was a homemaker, valued education and taught her children to excel. She sewed her children’s shirts while teaching them “big words”, each week. She would make flash card with an adult “big word” in a sentence. Her son Tim recalls Mom encouraging him to learn the “big word”, spell it correctly and use it in new sentence that included the context. Once learned another flash card would appear!

Alta was a self-taught artist, writer and started several home businesses. She painted pictures of flowers, western wagons from photos of Knott’s Berry Farm and a series of clown pictures. She dressed as a clown to participate in the annual Mother Goose Parade in El Cajon, CA where the family lived for 13 years.

She sewed many a doll or stuffed animal, some for sale, often given to her grandchildren for Christmas and donated others to St. Jude’s Hospital for Children. A skillful seamstress, Alta drew patterns and sold them through craft magazines. She started Rymer’s Storybook with a cutout and painted plywood sign posted in her driveway. She wrote and published several children’s books, most about space-based characters and their struggles with environmental issues on their distant planets. Her book characters faced challenges from the impact of insecticides and fertilizers until the ecosystem was dysfunctional. Some books were sold or gifted and a number donated to local schools.

Alta and Keith retired to Pineridge, CA. She located an old-fashioned printing press and set type for her business cards and a monthly newsletter for Tollhouse, CA, a near-by community. She contributed until relocating to Burrough Valley and Clovis, CA.

Handiwork in later years included knitting caps/hats for anyone she though needed one and making small prayer cloths with blessings that she freely gave to friends and strangers. In her later years, limited by both failing sight and hearing, her creative spirit continued. A spiritual soul, Alta composed songs for church in her head and would call the minister and sing the new songs she composed on the minister’s voice mail. She was pleased to tell you that some of her songs were shared with the congregation.

Her family is thankful for the care she received at Willow Creek Healthcare Center at Clovis, CA where she lived for the past seven years.

A private service was held.