Chico Enterprise Record – February 6, 2007 GAIL VIVIAN WELLMAN Loving wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt and Wildcats Fan Gail Vivian Wellman, 57, of Forest Ranch, passed away at home in the arms of George, her high school sweetheart and husband of 40 years, on Feb. 2, 2007. Gail was born at home on June 15, 1949, in Likely, Calif., to Jim and Velma McCrary. She graduated from Big Valley High School in 1967 and married her only love, George Albert Wellman, that same year. A beautiful baby girl, Sheri Rene', entered their lives shortly after. In 1969 the young Wellman family moved to Chico. Gail served lunches with a smile at the Chico Junior High Cafeteria for 11 years while she supported George in his pursuit of his MBA at CSU, Chico. She later delighted in serving up scrumptious lunches at Swenson's Ice Cream Parlor. In 1986 she received her certificate in Early Childhood Education from Butte College and enchanted little children with happy songs and hands-on learning at Play N' Learn School House. In 1991 she and George moved to Forest Ranch. As her career as a paid employee ended, she became a professional volunteer for her new community. And then the real work began. She spearheaded the refurbishing of the Forest Ranch Community Center and served on the boards of The Forest Ranch Women's Club and Community Association, she also regularly contributed to the Forest Ranch Post. She proudly stated that "volunteers are made of gold" and her family and friends saw through her tireless service that no one was more golden than her. For more than 40 years George and Gail were the best of buddies. They spent countless hours camping under the pines, challenging each other's fishing skills (Gail almost always won), singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" at Wildcats baseball games and sitting next to each other in their lifetime seats at Acker Gym. She was the heart of our family. Her avid quilting hobby was a metaphor for her life. She gathered people like scraps of cloth and pieced us together with her thread of love, she crafted us into something beautiful and held us all together. It was important to her to make personalized quilts for her family. We now find ourselves clinging to those beautiful blankets as a living reminder of her loving arms wrapped around us. Gail Vivian Wellman was quite simply the best. Best Wife. Best Mom. Best Daughter. Best Sister. Best Aunt. Best Friend. She was instinctively able to be whatever it was that we needed her to be. Her legacy of love is survived by her husband, George Wellman; daughters, Rene' Wellman and Megan Olson; mother, Velma McCrary; siblings, Margaret Sherer, Mickey McCrary and Linda Montz; her grandchildren, Matt, Rachel, Cheyenne Allison and Justin Branch; brothers and sisters-in-law, John and Jeanne Wellman, Jane D'amelio, Gail McCrary and Bill Montz; nieces, Genny Monchamp and Brooke Pebely, and numerous other nieces, nephews and close family friends. She wanted her life to be celebrated and so we will gather to remember her and rejoice in the time we spent together on Feb. 8, 2007 at Newton-Bracewell Chico Funeral Home at 10 a.m. Contributions in her memory can be made to University Foundation­ Chico State Athletics Department or the Forest Ranch Community Association in care of the funeral home. ~~~~~~ Billie C. & Anita 'Jean' Reynolds Family Researcher of "The Last Frontier" Modoc County, California --- Our outgoing mail is checked by ZoneAlarm AntiVirus.