Quedellice Northern

Quedellice Northern

Simi Valley, CA

November 21, 1918 - May 2, 2015

Born Quedellice Rodgers (que - dell - iss), the second of four daughters in Columbus, Ohio in The Hilltop Area which, at the time, was the edge of town. She spoke fondly of catching fireflies and making daisy chains in the meadow by her house.

From a very early age, it was music that made her heart soar. She recalled her mother, Viderah singing while doing housework and her father, Leo playing bass in a small band with her uncles. She talked about how neighbors would come around to hear the Rodgers Girls sing on their front porch on summer evenings.

Just before WWII she moved to Detroit. She sang in clubs and waited tables at first, but when the war started she spent time on the assembly line riveting P-47 fuselages for the effort. During her stay there, she became an equestrian in the English style. Not long after the war ended, she headed for California... Unfortunately, the money ran out in Denver, CO.

She stayed there a while, working at an insurance firm and a mortuary until family obligations drew her back east to Camden, New Jersey. There, she worked at the Veteran's Administration until, finally, in 1964 she made it out to California with her parents. She started working in real estate and ended up opening an escrow company called Crenshaw Escrow.

Her musical connections led her to befriend jazz artist Jimmy Smith and informal jams with others like George Benson and Jeffrey Osborne.

In 1976, she began singing for the Channelaire Chorus - The Ventura County Chapter of the Sweet Adelines. For the next twenty years, she travelled the country, performing in competitions as the clarion bass and as chorus seamstress.

She retired in 1984 and spent the next thirty years in Simi Valley, living independently until her last few months. Her final adventure was a road trip to Texas to stay with her daughter, Wendy's family. There, she finally breathed her last, peacefully and surrounded by loved ones.

She joins her beloved mother Viderah, sisters Florence and Charlebert in Glory and is survived

by her sister Phyllis of Beaverton, OR, her daughters Alicyn (CA), Wendy with granddaughters Taylor and Parker great grandkids Rowan, Jace, Emery, Nori, Drake, & Aiden (TX), as well as her sisters' children: Arthur (OR), Clinton, Lynn, John (CA).

She also leaves behind Winnie, her neighbor of 24 years, and a small legion of friends and admirers who will miss her grit, humor, and generosity. Hers was a life well lived. Her motto: Live, Laugh, Love...
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