Viola Mary Demes

1919—2020

Auburn and the world lost a wonderful human being last week. Viola (Orsolini) Demes passed away peacefully on September 8, 2020 in Auburn. She had contracted the insidious Corona virus in July and had actually finally tested negative, and even though signs pointed to a recovery, Covid left her 101 year-old system in a severely compromised and weakened state.

Viola (who preferred to go by Vi) was born August 31, 1919 in Sacramento, California in her grandmother’s house to Italian immigrants Leonard and Bruna Orsolini. Her parents and older brother, Ed, were living in Soda Springs at the time where Mr. Orsolini worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad. When Vi and her brother reached school age, Mr. Orsolini secured a position as a section foreman for Southern Pacific in Newcastle, California. The railroad section house, between the east and west-bound tracks, became home to the Orsolini family for many years. Vi attended Newcastle Grammar School and later graduated from Placer High School in 1937.

At one point, during grade school, Vi and her family traveled from Sacramento to New York by rail, and then boarded a steamship for Italy to visit Vi’s paternal grandmother in a village just outside of Lucca, Italy. She used to tell stories of this visit where her grandmother lived in a brick house with no electricity. Meals were cooked over an open fire and sleep for the children was on beds of straw. In a few months, they returned home to their life in Newcastle. Vi was blessed with a younger brother, Leonard, 21 years her junior in 1940.

Vi had various odd jobs in Newcastle including at the once thriving Newcastle fruit sheds. Some time after graduation from high school, she became acquainted with Vernon McCann and he introduced her to the Cassidy family who owned the Auburn Journal at the time and she was offered a position at the paper.

During this time, it was apparent that the country was preparing for war and her older brother enlisted in the army and was training at Fort Ord. It was here that her future husband, Jim Demes, struck up a friendship with her brother Ed and they visited the Orsolini family on a weekend pass, where Jim and Vi first met. War came and Jim was wounded on Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific. When given the options of a few army hospitals he could be sent to stateside, Jim remembered he had met the Orsolini family from Newcastle, and since there were no other army hospitals closer to his home in San Gabriel, he chose Dewitt Army hospital in Auburn for treatment and recovery.

He contacted the Orsolinis and Vi and Jim were reacquainted. After some time they began dating and were eventually married in 1945.

Jim and Vi lived in Auburn for a while and then moved to Merced where Jim was in business selling farm equipment. It was here that Vi gave birth to her first son Jack in 1948. Later they moved to the San Diego area where Jim was helping out family in the grocery business. Finally they decided they liked the small-town life, and moved back to Auburn when Jim secured a position at McClellan Field and while living on Agard Street across from the high school, Vi gave birth to their second son Michael in 1954. In the late fifties they built a home in the Skyridge area where Vi remained most of the rest of her life. It was there that she made many life-long friends especially the Vesey, Maloney, and Langley families.

Around 1960 she rejoined the Auburn Journal and rekindled many friendships with members of her “Journal family.” Retirement came for Vi about 1980 after a combined 26 plus years with the paper. To quote from an Auburn Journal article at the time of her retirement, “She’s been a receptionist, secretary, society writer, and bookkeeper—and those were her official duties. Unofficially, Mrs. Demes has been a source of fresh pencils, paychecks, typewriter ribbons, and solice for problems.” She was affectionately known as “Mother” by fellow Journal employees.

Her husband Jim and brother Ed passed in 1987 and it was after this that she turned her attention to grandchildren. She was a hands-on grandmother with all three of her beloved granddaughters, Jennifer, Jamie, and Olivia. She reveled in ferrying them to and from school and helping them with homework and other school projects. The bond between Grandma Vi and her girls was beyond words.

Vi traveled a lot throughout the country during her later years often with her traveling companion and good friend Nell Maloney. She revisited Europe twice, once with the Giuliani family and her sister-in-law Diva Orsolini, and again with her son Jack and family when she was 80 years old.

She was a devout Catholic, attended St. Joseph’s church, and was a member of the Italian Catholic Federation.

Vi made many close friends, young and old, during her time in this world and I would love to name every one, but the list would go on forever. She was special to everyone who knew her. She is truly loved and will be sorely missed by many not the least of which are her survivors: Sons Jack and Michael, daughter-in-law Christy, brother Leonard, granddaughters Jennifer Demes, Jamie Duke, Olivia Demes, and great-granddaughters Hailey and Ava Duke. We will miss you forever, Mom, and so will everyone else.

There will be a private cemetery service. A public viewing will be available on Wednesday afternoon/evening Sept. 16, at Chapel of the Hills in Auburn between the hours of 4 PM to 8 PM. In lieu of flowers a charitable donation may be made to Suncrest Hospice, 2250 Del Paso Rd., Unit B, Sacramento, CA 95834