Sybil Grace Macy

With great sadness we announce that our mother, grandmother, great grandmother, aunt, great aunt, and great great aunt has passed. Sybil Grace Chambers Macy, born October 26, 1921, Dow City, Iowa, passed peacefully on May 16, 2016, in Oakdale, California, age 94 and surrounded by her loved ones. Raised as the seventh of eight children of Earl and Clara Olive Chambers, tenant farmers in Iowa, during the Great Depression. At sixteen Mom graduated high school. Her father had a cerebral hemorrhage and died just two days after she graduated high school in 1938. Mom moved to Des Moines to work as a nanny, supporting herself and sending money to her widowed mother and younger sibling for their support. Mom found time to secure a secretarial education and found employment as an executive secretary at Better Homes & Gardens magazine. From 1939 through her marriage to our father, James “Red” Myrl Macy, on January 24, 1942 she lived in an apartment with four other young women resulting in lifetime friendships that were a highlight of her life. Mom told many stories including about this period of her life, including admitting that she ‘kissed Dad on their very first date. This was strictly against the ‘rules’. Soon after her marriage she endured the unrelieved anxiety and feelings of panic as Dad served for three years aboard a Navy destroyer in the North Atlantic (participating in the Normandy landings); and then, again, in 1968 when her son served as a foot-soldier in Vietnam. Dad and Mom raised her children in Ventura, California and worked in billing at Community Memorial Hospital. Sybil lived her golden years with Dad in the dream home they built in Ashland, Oregon 1975 - 2000. Sybil started her own business assisting medical offices to bill Medicare and MediCal which she operated until 1999. When Red was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s they moved to Sacramento to be closer to their children. Dad died in 2002. In 2009 Sybil moved again, at age 78, to, for the first time in her life, live by herself in Oakdale, California, 2009-16, but to be near the support of her daughters. Mom was the last living member of her generation, both on her side and Dad’s.

Sybil is survived by her daughters Pamela (Richard) and Karen (Reggie) and son James (Sarah); grandchildren Greg (Rowena), Carlie (Dave), Christine (Alex), Gary (Kate), and Sybil; and, great grandchildren Quinn, Logan, Judah, Paige, Aiden, Zoe, and Sylvia.

The family wishes to express particular appreciation to the Marmon In-Home Care Services of Oakdale, California for their wonderful care and attention to Mom over the last several years - Brenda, Jennifer, Carmen, Bianca, Betty, Maria, Stephanie, and Doreen.

Mom was loved and cherished by many including family, friends and acquaintances. We will all miss and remember her forever.

Those who wish to remember Mom with a donation may make it to the charity of your own choice.

A memorial service will be held at the Mt. Vernon Memorial Cemetery, 8201 Greenback Lane, Fair Oaks, CA 95628 on Wednesday, June 1, 2016 at 12:00 P.M. noon. A reception will follow.