OBITUARIES Click here

Pauline W. Flaim – Born in New York, 1912
Polly Flaim was born in New York, NY, on Feb. 12, 1912, and died
on Mar. 2, 2009 at the age of 97. Flaim grew up in New York and
Chepatchet, RI, and came to California in the 1930s with her sister
Dora and her friend Pearl West. She lived in Oakland with her
mother, Mary, and three sisters, Regina, Dora and Valerie and
worked in San Francisco as a secretary and accountant for the
Veterans Administration. She retired in 1977 and moved to
Sebastopol with her sisters to a house that she chose because it
had room for a large garden and small orchard. She loved traveling
with her sisters on trips to Hawaii, Africa, South America and
Europe, where she lived and worked for a short period in Germany.
She particularly enjoyed visiting her many relatives in northern
Italy and South Tyrol, which was part of Austria when her parents
and her aunts and uncles were born there. She is survived by her
sister Dora Mary Flaim, and her nieces and nephews, Aileen Natale,
Emma Bonvicin, Louise Gifford, Carolyn Flaim, Milton Flaim, Warren
Cox, Brenda Cox Wilson, Randall Cox and her many great-nieces and
nephews.
Sheila Graham Tilbury – Watched Zeppelin bombing run in
WWI
Sheila Tilbury died March 5, 2009, in Sebastopol at the age of
105. As a young girl, she watched the German Zeppelins fly overhead
on their way to drop bombs on London during World War I. Sheila
Graham married Charles E. Tilbury of Southampton, England, in 1923.
Her husband, died in 1955, and their son, Charles Graham Tilbury
preceded his mother in death in 2006. Tilbury and her husband owned
Beverly Hills Travel. They traveled extensively throughout the
world making many crossings on the Great Liners, both in the
Atlantic and the Pacific. They also flew on early aircraft.
She moved to the Sebastopol area in 1990 to be near her family.
Sheila is survived by her granddaughters, Theresa McNulty, Margaret
Orr and Mary Tilbury; her daughter-in-law, Sally Tilbury; her six
great-grandchildren; and her six great-great-grandchildren, all of
Northern California.
Cleo Lenzi Rogers – 1919-2009
At 0330 hours on the cold morning of 6 June 1944, First
Lieutenant Cleo Lenzi Loban went over the side of the troop ship,
down the net and into a waiting LST for the long wait and short
journey to Omaha Beach, D-Day of Operation Overlord.
A registered nurse by profession, Lieutenant Cleo joined the
Army in 1944 in anger at the fact that her husband, Captain Glen
Loban, USMC, was killed in the battle of Guadalcanal in late 1942.
Captain Loban was a Marine Aviator, an Ace who shot down 6 Zeros
and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross.
After landing on Omaha Beach, Lieutenant Cleo’s battalion was
moved to the Utah Beach area and subsequently operated a major
field hospital in Le Mans, France. During the remaining
hostilities, many thousands of allied troops were treated and
subsequently many thousands of German and Italian POW’s were also
treated.
After the German capitulation and VE Day, Lieutenant Cleo was
transferred to the Occupation Forces in Germany and saw duty at
hospitals in the Frankfurt Area.
Coming to France on the Queen Elizabeth, she returned on the
Queen Mary.  Both converted to troop ships.
Cleo was born December 24, 1919 in La Grange, IL to Cole and
Veronica Lenzi.  She graduated as a registered nurse in 1941 from
St  Francis Hospital in Evanston, IL, including college at Loyola
University of Chicago.  She practiced nursing for 50 years after
that.
Cleo was remarried to John Rogers in 1949.  John died in 1997. 
Children survive Cleo: Noni Mc Call, Tim Rogers, Kyle Baker, Holly
Pabst and Judy Findeisen.  Another daughter, Kimberly, preceded her
in death in 1964.
Two sisters, Jean Anison of Sandia Park, NM and Naomi Bryson of
Paonia, CO as well as 9 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren
also survive Cleo.
Cleo moved to Healdsburg from Elgin, Illinois in 2001.  Cleo was
a member of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.
A Memorial Service will be held Saturday, March 14 at 1 p.m. at
Good Shepherd. A reception lunch will follow. All friends of Cleo
are invited.
Caroline Brown – Partner antique dealer of Jimtown
Store
Indiana native Caroline Brown, died February 11, 2009 at home in
Healdsburg. She was the daughter of the late Luella and Henry
Smith, traveled across the United States during World War II with
her family and settled in Ventura, California, in 1945.  After
graduating from UC Berkley in 1952, where she majored in arts,
humanities, and education, she taught nursery school and
kindergarten in Southern California. Caroline married fellow Cal
alumni, Charles Brown in August 1953 in Ventura. The couple lived
in Northern California, Berkeley and Marin County, where their
daughters, Carrie and Julie Brown, were born. The Browns lived in
Caracas, Venezuela, in the mid-’60s where she taught first grade to
Spanish, English, and Hebrew speaking children and traveled
throughout South America. After relocating to Marin and briefly
Sonoma Counties, Caroline lived in Saudi Arabia in the late ‘70s
and early ‘80s with her husband, where she worked as principal for
an unusual, integrated school for Saudi and Western boys and girls.
She taught English to Japanese and Korean businessmen, served as
president of a joint Saudi and Expatriate women’s club, befriended
many Bedouin and Saudi women, visited western prisoners in Saudi
jails, served on a children’s hospital board and extensively
traveled the world for 10 years.
Caroline and Charles settled in Healdsburg in the late ‘80s and
began to assist daughter Carrie and son-in- law, the late John
Werner, with the reconstruction of the landmark Jimtown Store in
Alexander Valley. The store reopened in 1991, with Caroline and
Charles as partner antique dealers with John and Carrie. Caroline
was a daily contributor to the store business, assisting with
baking  & catering in the early days, continuing with the
purchasing of gift inventory and restoring antiques. She was an
integral Jimtown presence, welcoming customers, selling, styling,
and merchandising the store until her retirement in 2006.
Caroline is remembered for her expansive, inclusive nature, as a
generous mentor and rock to her immediate family and to many
friends. Multitalented, she was perennially creative, curious,
artistic, a nurturing cook, lover of the arts and cultures, an
advocate for equal rights -a true citizen of the world. Best of
all, she was a deep thinker, naturally selfless, lovely and
kind—she made people feel good about themselves. Grace and strength
personified, effervescent and enthusiastic, Caroline’s outer beauty
was a true reflection of the inside.
Her immediate family—husband Charles; and daughter Carrie Brown
of Healdsburg; daughter Julie Brown and son-in-law Dan De Serpa of
San Rafael; and sister-in-law Marjorie March of Davis, CA—continues
to honor her every day. No public memorial services will be
held.
Rexford Holmes – Co-founder of Dry Creek Valley
Association
Rexford Holmes passed away on Valentine’s Day, 2009 at the home
of his caregivers, Irma and Thomas Kitchen, after a brief illness.
A California native, he was born on March 16, 1913 in Los
Angeles.
As a young man, Rex enjoyed many stellar performances at the Los
Angeles Philharmonic, where he worked as an usher. Through a mutual
friend there, he met his future bride, artist Rosinda Sellers, whom
he married on March 1, 1941. In Los Angeles, Rex also attended art
classes at Chouinard Art Institute and was a bookseller for famed
rare book dealer, Jake Zeitlin. This led briefly to his own
business collecting and selling books related to the Hollywood
movie industry. In the early 1940s, Rex and Rosinda moved to San
Francisco, where they produced greeting cards featuring San
Francisco scenes designed by both of them and printed by Rex.
During World War II, he served as an inspector of warships at
various shipyards in the Bay Area.
The Holmes’ daughter, Karen, was born in 1955, and three years
later the family moved to Healdsburg after purchasing a prune ranch
in Dry Creek Valley. In addition to ranching, Rex continued
printing, eventually owning his own printing business and working
from his shop overlooking his prized property.  In the mid-1970s,
he was one of the earliest farmers in the area to replace his prune
orchard with wine grapes, and his great love for the area inspired
him to be one of the co-founders of the Dry Creek Valley
Association.
Known for his optimism, wit, and penchant for puns, he will be
greatly missed. In addition to his daughter, he is survived by his
son-in-law Eric Neilson, his grandson Alex Neilson, several
cousins, and his second family, the Kitchens. Contributions in his
memory may be made to the Rosinda and Rexford Holmes Memorial Art
Scholarship at Healdsburg High School.