Patricia Joanne Saylor passed away on Monday morning, Nov. 17, 2008, at St. Joseph Hospital in Bellingham with her children and husband, Dick, at her side. She was hospitalized the week before due to complications following a serious fall.

She was 74.

Pat, known as Trish, was born on Jan. 13, 1934 in Des Moines, Iowa, to Irene and Vern Sonderleiter.

At 19, she moved to California where she met and subsequently married Cal DeYoung and had four wonderful daughters. She worked for Shell Development Company and later Systec Financial Corporation as an executive secretary.

Following divorce in 1970, she met and married Richard L. (Dick) Saylor in October 1975. They resided in Alameda, Calif. Dick was a partner with the insurance brokerage firm of Saylor & Hill Co. in Oakland and Trish became a freelance legal secretary, working for a number of law offices throughout the Bay Area.

Dick was an avid sailboat racer and cruiser on and around San Francisco Bay, and Trish happily joined in and was an excellent student. Over the years, they sailed across the Atlantic; sailed from San Francisco to Hawaii; cruised with friends in the Society Islands, making the passage from Bora Bora to American Samoa; plus numerous U.S. coastal voyages. They both were very active members of Oakland Yacht Club.

In the late 1970s, they discovered the San Juan Islands and in 1981 retired from the business world and moved to San Juan Island, building their home in Mineral Heights.

Cruising throughout the San Juans, Gulf Islands and coastal British Columbia kept them happily busy during the summer months. They joined the San Juan Island Yacht Club in 1988; Trish served as president of First Mates in 1991.

She was a fine cook and seamstress, and enjoyed traveling, visiting and being visited by kids, grandkids and friends. In recent years, she took up painting and won a prize at the San Juan County Fair in 2007. For years, she sang with the Presbyterian Church choir, the San Juan Singers and was part of the cast in the island’s first production of “Hello Dolly” in the early years of the San Juan Community Theatre.

In 2001, Trish and Dick moved into their present home in University Heights.

Trish, an only child, was preceded in death by her parents and her first husband. She is survived by her husband, Dick; her children, Laura Callahan, Cynthia Henderson, Linda Armstrong and Diana DeYoung; six grandchildren; two great-grandchildren, as well as four stepchildren and nine step-grandchildren.

Trish will be remembered as a caring and loving wife, mother, grandmother and good friend. Her final whispered wish was to be with God.

A private family celebration of Trish’s life will be held in California.

– Family of Patricia J. Saylor (Richard Saylor, 509 Point Caution Drive, Friday Harbor 98250)