Phyllis ( Andrini) Vasquez

Oct. 11, 1924 - Sept. 1, 2020

Family and friends of Phyllis Vasquez, celebrated her well and fully lived life at her burial at Happy Homestead Cemetery and later at her cabin in South Lake Tahoe on September 11, 2020. Phyllis passed away in her sleep on September 1, 2020, at the age of 95. She was a loving and devoted wife, and a wonderful role model for many. She will be lovingly remembered as the mother of 5 sons, grandmother of 6, great grandmother of 9, and great great grandmother of 2. We will all remember her as a kind, loving, and dignified woman who was as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside.

Phyllis was preceded in passing by her beloved husband, Louis Vasquez, who passed in 1989. For Phyllis and Lou, family was everything. Their sense of family gave us a firm grounding and will always be with us. As a wife and mom, she was special - bringing up five sons through the 60s and 70s in San Francisco, One summer in the early days of their marriage, Phyllis and Lou discovered Lake Tahoe and fell in love with everything about it. This, they decided, was the legacy they wanted for their family. They scrimped and saved, and with college friends, built cabins and a community. For a child there could be no better place to grow up.

She was a trailblazer.

She raised her children and returned to earn an M. A. when women rarely achieved graduate degrees. As chair of the Athletics Department at City College of San Francisco, she taught for 20+ years and was renowned for her great rapport with students and colleagues. People just gravitated to her. When Lou passed, she lived 30 more years without another partner. She was waiting to be with Lou again. He was the love of her life and now they are together again. But her life did not end with Lou. She lived long enough to see three sons retire and long enough to know her great grandchildren and they adored her. She walked 2 miles everyday and traveled the world with family and friends until her 80s. She served meals to other seniors into her 90s at a senior center and maintained an active life until just a few years ago. Loved by many, Phyllis always had a smile - for everyone. That’s how we will remember her...

( Our thanks to Duggan’s Serra Mortuary in Daly City and Happy Homestead Cementery in South Lake Tahoe, her ‘ nurse, Lana, and her caretakers Sharmaine and Connie at Pacific Care in San Mateo, for their love, care and compassion.)