Stella Marie Batha

1925 - 2024

Stella Marie Batha died on July 14, 2024, at 99 years old.

On her final day, she went on a walk with one of her sons and sat in the summer sun of her daughter's rose garden; after dinner, and after nearly a century of joyful living, her heart finally gave out.

Born in 1925 to immigrant parents from Lebanon and Syria, Stella grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. As World War II broke out, a teenaged Stella had two options: to marry young, or to join the Cadet Nurse Corps. She chose the latter, promising to join the war effort after paid-for nursing training, and hopped the train to UC San Francisco with a single suitcase.

All the qualities that defined her years as a mother and grandmother - warmth, confidence, liveliness - lent themselves well to nursing, which became her career even though the war ended before she could enlist.

Stella met Richard Batha, the soldier cousin of a fellow nursing student, at a dinner party. He had just returned from Europe, where he fought in the Battle of the Bulge, among other pivotal contests. The unlikely pair - a serious small-town boy from Northern Wisconsin and the vivacious Stella - married in 1947.

In 1953, the family moved to the house in Millbrae where they raised their five children, and where both would live for the rest of their lives.

Stella loved nothing more than her family and nature. She backpacked with her family, and later for decades with the Loma Prieta chapter of the Sierra Club. She knew the names of native plants, pressing samples in a sketchbook, and loved to watch birds with Rich. When in the woods, Stella repeated her mantra: "Leave it better than you found it." Starting in the 1960s, the couple contributed to many environmental causes, and Stella continued to do so up until she died.

Stella sang with gusto - if not necessarily perfect pitch. She knew every word of countless campfire songs, and sang them late into her life. At the weddings of her three eldest grandchildren, she sang acapella Willie Nelson's "Let the Rest of the World Go By."

In her absence, Stella's memory lives on in the wildflowers her family still recognizes, the song "Accentuate the Positive," and pears dipped in pineapple juice and left to dry in the sun. She was a riot to the very last: bold and funny and fiercely loving and always with a beautiful smile.

Stella is survived by her children Rick, Ted, Laurie, and Ellen, and by her eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. She is predeceased by her husband Rich, her parents Theodore and Lynda, her siblings Ted, Robert, and Mimi, and her son Bob. Her family and everyone lucky enough to know her miss her already.

A Celebration of Life will be held on September 28, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. at Chapel of the Highlands in Millbrae, CA.