Deborah Sedgwick Brittan

Deborah Coulter Sedgwick Brittan, a magnetic dynamite of a woman, passed away on Tuesday, May 21st, 2019, from the humbling Alzheimer's disease. She is preceded in death by her son Branden and her husband Kent Brittan. Deborah leaves behind her two daughters Lisa Sharp Brittan and Laurel Sedgwick Brittan, cousins Richard Sedgwick, Emily Sedgwick, Reese Coulter, Becky Rogers, Suzanne Coulter, Colleen Bellue, J.B. Coulter, aunt Janet Poteete, and many loving friends to carry on her memory, and good works. Deborah's husband, Kent, passed away in 2016 from a sudden heart attack. Her daughters take comfort in the idea that Deborah and Kent can be together in spirit, looking after all those they love. A fourth-generation Californian, Deborah was born in Bakersfield, California, to Dr. Frederick Paul Sedgwick and Allison Lelia Coulter Sedgwick on June 22nd, 1943. Because her father died before she was born, she was raised primarily by her mother Allison and her grandparents, Joel Write Coulter and Edna Alice Barlow. Allison encouraged Deborah to make performance art a necessity in life, a passion that Deborah passed along to her two daughters. Deborah graduated from Stevens College with an associate degree in 1963 and in 1971 she received a bachelor of arts from the University of Colorado in Boulder. In the intervening years she lived in Mexico and Alaska, working and traveling. She took the opportunity to become multilingual speaking both Spanish and French in addition to English. Deborah was not one for conformity and practiced breaking normative assumptions whenever possible. One example of this was when she worked to change Stevens College requirement that all students attend church. This action got her black-balled from the sorority she was attending. Deborah met her future husband Kent at a dinner party held by her mother. The two mothers, Allison Sedgwick and Helen Brittan, were friends and introduced them. After Kent tricked Deborah into asking him to marry her during a pillow fight, they were married in Allison's backyard in Bakersfield in 1979. Acting on her dedication to social justice, Deborah found outlets in writing and radio. After college she had a radio show in Los Angeles and then again in Sacramento where she interviewed and gave airtime to marginalized communities, including those who practiced "other-ways-of-knowing" such as divination and goddess traditions. In the early 1980s, Deborah moved to Davis, where she and her husband Kent settled in Village Homes to raise Laurel and Lisa. Deborah created her own business, Deborah Brittan and Associates. She was especially proud of helping develop the Marketplace Shopping Center off Covell Blvd. When it was discovered her youngest child had cerebral palsy Deborah sold her office and began working from home, becoming the president and a founder of the Child Therapy Center (CTC) in Woodland in 1993. Deborah was intent on, and successful in raising funds for CTC and organizing incredible auctions and community awareness around children with different needs. Deborah was also active in both performing music and enjoying performance art. A marvelous soprano, Deborah sang in a number of choirs through her life, most recently delighting in Laura Sandage's ensemble, the Free Range Singers, and the choir at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis. In addition to singing, Deborah played the clarinet and piano. Influenced by her mother, Deborah was a member of The Oregon Shakespeare Festival for thirteen years, continuing the annual tradition of taking her family to plays even after her mother's death. She became a frequent patron at the Mondavi Center in Davis and The Art Center in Davis. Deborah's love of music and social justice was bolstered by what she discovered in the First Church of Religious Science and later in the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis (UUCD). Through UUCD, Deborah became involved in the Myanmar Children Foundation, where both Deborah and Kent traveled to Myanmar and worked with children, teaching young students English, and erecting living spaces for women and children escaping the border with China. Travel was very important to Deborah. Having a strong and able body, she delighted in exploring the world, camping, hiking, dancing to any music that might be playing around her, and meeting new people. Deborah was a reiki practitioner and participated in deep spiritual work developing life-force energy and meditation. She utilized a modality called Totality Therapy with a group of valiant women, established by practitioner Shakti Malan. Above all, Deborah loved community and her family. In one of the last few lucid moments of her life she said, "All I want is to make people happy." Deborah most certainly accomplished that and far more. Laurel and Lisa wish to thank their mother of the unconditional love she surrounded them with, as well as the beauty, colors, sounds, and laughter she so generously shared. Deborah's love has bolstered both Lisa and Laurel to celebrate their strength, to enjoy their differences, and to love deeply. A ceremony of Life for Deborah Brittan will be held on the 29th of June 2019, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis, located at 27074 Patwin Rd, Davis CA 95616, at 2pm in the afternoon. Flowers and items of remembrance can be brought to the church. Donations are welcome to the Children Therapy Center in Woodland CA.