1944, with Dad

1998

Published Feb. 2, 2002 in the Roseville Press-Tribune
(errors that appeared in the newspaper have been corrected here)

Bonita Eileen McGehee
09/04/26 - 01/31/02

Bonita Eileen McGehee passed away in Carmichael on Jan. 31, 2002 at the age of 75 years. Born in Missoula, Mont. on Sept. 4, 1926. She is survived by her former spouse M.A. (Mac) McGehee, her son Brian McGehee and his wife Terry of Roseville, and Kevin McGehee and his wife Chris of Georgia; grandchildren, April and Lisia; and great-grandchild Alexzander.

A memorial service will be held in her memory on Monday at 10 a.m. at Hillcrest Alliance Church with the Rev. Tim Brooks officiating.

Entrusted to the care of Chapel of the Valley.

This collage, displayed at Mom's memorial service, was made by my sister-in-law Terry, with help from my brother Brian and my wife Chris. The hat in the upper left corner was the one Mom preferred to wear during the last few years, and Terry said even in winter it was like Mom carried a little bit of springtime with her. The cloth hat in the lower right was the one Mom wore on her 1996 trip to Alaska, and has on it, among other things, a number of Alaska-related pins obtained during that visit.

The McGehee men, together after the memorial service. That's me (Kevin) on the left, Dad in the middle, and older brother Brian on the right. Dad is 77 and retired, while Brian, 44, is a top foreman for a utilities construction company.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin McGehee"
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2002 12:13 p.m.
Subject: A mother's life

"The evil that men do lives on after them. The good is oft interred with their bones." (Julius Caesar, some act, some scene, I'm not a Shakespearean, okay?)

Whatever may have been true of men in Shakespeare's eyes, isn't necessarily true of mothers.

My mother, Eileen McGehee, passed away on January 31, 2002 at a nursing home in Carmichael, California. She was 75. She is survived by her former husband Mac McGehee, of Sacramento, and two of their three sons: Brian, of Roseville, CA and Kevin, of Coweta County, GA; and by her younger sister, Mrs. Sheila Navratil of Sandpoint, Idaho, and her sister-in-law Mrs. Ellen Morris of Wichita.

She was diagnosed with Type II diabetes about 15 years ago, and lost her right leg to complications from that condition in 1995. Nevertheless she traveled, unescorted, to Fairbanks in 1996 to visit with me and my wife Chris. Despite being confined to a wheelchair she eagerly ventured out with us on an attempt to reach the Arctic Circle by way of the North Slope Haul Road (a.k.a. Dalton Highway), and even though the trip was cut short by two flat tires for which yours truly, who should have known better, was utterly unprepared, she insisted she had enjoyed the expedition and hoped to try again if she could come back for another visit.

She also had a great time at that year's Midnight Sun baseball game in Fairbanks, played starting at 10:00 p.m. on the longest day of the year, without lights for nine innings. Most memorable about that game was the lady beer vendor who entertained the fans with jokes and riddles. Facing the bleachers -- with her back, therefore, to the lower rows where Mom, Chris and I were seated -- Miss Beer Lady asked the fans, "What do you call a woman with one leg? Eileen (I lean)." All three of us had a good laugh, but we all thought it best to spare the beer vendor any knowledge of our presence. In these days of hypersensitivity, she might easily have gotten the wrong impression.

Mom was a wartime bride, marrying Dad at Victorville, California while he was stationed at the Army Air field there in 1944. After the war they settled in the lower Bay Area where both of them worked for General Electric, at a time when that company was a major research-and-development contractor into atomic energy applications. Mom's job required her to have access to atomic secrets, which led to her receiving a "Q" clearance from the Department of Defense. Later in life she would work in data processing, then as a bookkeeper. But ultimately she would proclaim that her most important and most rewarding job was as mother to Brian and me.

On the day that I came to Sacramento in response to her last illness, I drove straight from the airport to the nursing home. She was asleep when I arrived, but awoke when I brushed her forehead. She was very tired and couldn't speak, so I told her I loved her and that I'd let her rest and Brian and I would see her later. She was able to tell me, "I love you too."

A few hours later, still expecting to go back and see her again, I learned that she had passed away. She is now with both her parents and her stepfather, her brother Ed and sister Kathryn, and her first child Danny.

She's resting, and Brian and I will see her later.

Kevin M. McGehee
Traveling in Sacramento, CA

A Few of the Things We Learned from Mom

• In each day there is something to smile about, or laugh about, or be joyful about. You just have to look for it.

• Have faith in the truth.

• If you're strong of spirit and strong of love, all the unfairness in the world won't amount to anything.

• If life were easy, it wouldn't be any fun.

• However high the price may be for the privilege of doing the right thing, it's still a bargain.

• Do something you've never done before.

• When you most need to know that God loves you, He will find a way.