Aurelia Ann Sturm

1937 - 2021

Aurelia Ann Sturm, "Ann," age 84, passed away of pancreatic cancer Friday, December 17, 2021. Born in Los Angeles on July 7, 1937, she lived in several communities throughout Southern California in her childhood and young adulthood while often visiting family and grandparents (Jeff and Artie Davis), residing in Independence County, Arkansas. Ann lived in Palmdale, California, when she and her husband Gordon met in 1953 and married on November 14, 1954.
Ann enjoyed many hobbies, including needlepoint, knitting, quilting, and miniatures. In 1975 she built a miniature four-foot-tall by four-foot-wide replica of a San Francisco hillside Victorian house. Every room of the three-story miniature house was designed in intricate detail with furniture and décor of the early 1900s, and it has become a cherished family heirloom.
As a mother and wife, Ann was used to moving homes often as her husband Gordon's career as a J.C. Penney manager required moving to a new store with every promotion. This lifestyle did not hinder Ann's ability to make a warm and welcoming home wherever she was, and she always found time for taking on civic responsibilities in addition to caring for her children and maintaining her household. She loved the holidays and always made them very special for her family.
As her children grew older, the family moved to Eureka, CA, where Ann became a dedicated and passionate board-of-director member of The Redwood Coast Regional Center for the Mentally Disabled. Here, she spearheaded the funding and creation of a library to house educational books for parents of handicapped children and lead a support group for these parents as well.
Among her other charitable affiliations, she was active in the Assistance League, the Children's Home Society, Teddy Bears, and a board of director member of WATCH Resources in Sonora, an organization supporting independence and community integration for people with intellectual disabilities.
During the past 30 years living in Tuolumne County, Ann developed an avid interest in playing bridge and thoroughly enjoyed her membership in the ACBL, a national organization of duplicate bridge members. She loved playing bridge every week and developed wonderful lasting friendships with her bridge partners she would see at club and tournament games. She became an accomplished bridge player, attending many regional tournaments where she earned over 1000 tournament points to become a Silver Life Master.
Ann will be loved, cherished, remembered, adored and missed by everyone she has come in contact with throughout her life.
She is survived by her husband of 67 years, Gordon Sturm; her children, Laurie Rock, Jennifer Galindo, James Sturm, Bradley Sturm; her five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren; her brother, Larry Kalsbeek; her sister, Nancy Heikkola. She was preceded in death by her mother, Loma Rae Seuberth, and her sister, Phyllis Steeber.