Georgeanne Helen Cheyney DeMarco

Georgeanne “Jan” De Marco November 18, 1943 – August 16, 2010 Georgeanne “Jan” Helen Cheyney Buckman De Marco died peacefully at Madrone Hospice House in Yreka on August 16, 2010 where she was surrounded by her family, many dear friends, and the wonderful staff. Georgeanne was born in Sacramento, California on November 18, 1943 to William Buckman and Alice Mary Read Buckman. As a kid she loved pestering her older sister Judy and her older brother Read. When she was three, her family took a trip across the country and Jan had fun throwing her shoes out the open car window. She grew up in Sacramento and graduated from McClatchy High School. In 1965 she graduated from Sacramento State University with a degree in Psychology. She then went to nursing school at Providence College of Nursing in Oakland, California. After nursing school, she worked as a nurse and also as a flight attendant with Flying Tigers Airlines. She flew GIs in and out of Vietnam during the war and traveled extensively in Asia. She met her husband Frank on a flight on which they were both passengers. Jan and Frank married in April 1972 in Redding, California. They moved to Yreka, California where Jan joined the nursing staff at Siskiyou General Hospital (SGH). They had two daughters in 1974, Molly Michelle and Allison Cheyney. She worked as a nurse at SGH and then Fairchild Medical Center, transitioning into infection control and employee health, where she made getting shots and TB tests bearable. She also taught childbirth classes, CPR, and Weight Watchers over the years. She loved being a mentor, a teacher, always being available to help the many who sought her help, and loved to lead by example. She survived breast cancer and helped start a support group in Siskiyou County and worked on a UC Davis study on cancer survivorship in rural settings. She was a member of Children’s Home Society for many years and loved to model with her daughters in the annual fashion show. She was an active member of Shasta Valley Rotary where she loved to help put on the annual balloon fair and read to elementary school students. She enjoyed spending time with her sorority sisters in the Beta Sigma Phi Sorority and volunteering with the hospital auxiliary and Madrone Hospice after retiring from Fairchild Medical Center. After her retirement in 2008 she and Frank did a lot of traveling, including to Sicily, Italy, New Zealand with Rotary, Hawaii, and Mexico. She loved to make things, always sewing clothes for her children and making darling baby quilts. She learned to woodwork like her father through a carving class at College of the Siskiyous and liked to carve Santas, a different one each year and dogs, which her husband loved. She loved pets and had dogs and cats all her life. She loved exercise, especially 6AM aerobics and walks around Greenhorn Park with her friends and family. Jan was a wonderful mother and wife and an extremely fun travel companion. She had such beautiful, expressive eyes, which is why her mother always called her “Pansy-eyes.” She has a wonderful family including her husband Frank of Yreka, daughters Molly and Allison of Chapel Hill, NC, sister Judy Buckman Zerull of Jacksonville, OR, brother Read Buckman of Sacramento, CA, nieces and nephews Robin Nacamuli, Kristin Crocker, Jennifer Zerull, and Tom Zerull, seven grandnieces and nephews, and many cousins. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Madrone Hospice House at 255 Collier Circle, Yreka, CA 96097 or the Fairchild Medical Center Foundation at 444 Bruce St., Yreka, CA 96097. A Memorial Mass will be held at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Yreka at 10AM Saturday morning followed by a celebration of Jan’s life. All are welcome. Girdner Funeral Chapel is assisting the family.

Georgeanne Helen Cheyney DeMarco

November 18, 1943 - August 16, 2010