Antonia “Toni” Marjorie Wivell
January 5, 1937 - October 21, 2021
Our beautiful sweet Toni passed away on October 21, 2021, in Orange, California, with her daughter Shaun. Toni was born on January 5, 1937, in Santa Monica to Nell and Antone Martinich. She leaves a brother, Donald, who lives in Davis.
Her husband, Ty, and the family loved Toni with all their hearts. Ty and Toni lived together for 53+ years, the last 31 years in Sonora, the first 12 in Tustin, followed by 10 years in Thousand Oaks. They raised five kids together; her two, Shaun and son Tony, and Ty’s three, Dawn, Elizabeth and Tyrus Jack.
Our lives were blessed by Toni, with her heart, her personality and her fantastic capabilities. Some of those blessings included caring, thoughtfulness, sweetness, patience, hard work, assistance, supportiveness, educated knowledge, explanatory, artfulness and so forth. She was also physically beautiful with a great smile.
Toni attended school at Notre Dame in Belmont and College of San Mateo, where she studied art and drama. Toni also raced sports cars when she was a young woman. She worked at Lytton Savings and Loan in Palo Alto, where Ty met her in 1967. They were married in Carmel in 1968.
For almost every year the family came to Sonora for the Mother Lode Roundup and always helped the Tuolumne County Sheriff ’s Posse with the rodeo. The family usually made the end of the summer Posse campout at Kennedy Meadows, also. Great family times.
In 1991, Ty and Toni started a cow-calf operation near Chinese Camp. They worked days at local banks, ranched on weekends, and joined the Tuolumne County Sheriff ’s Posse. They have been very involved every year since.
Toni has worked a variety of TCSP Rodeo jobs including helping with the Calcutta Auction, the Queen contest, acting as MC at the Queen Pageant, putting on the Saturday night barbecue, counting money, modeling for the Cowgirl Luncheon and Fashion Show, taking tickets at the Sunday Breakfast and riding her horse, Lady, in the
Saturday Roundup Parade as a flag bearer.
Toni has made many wonderful friends within the Posse family and was very happy to have been part of it all for almost 50 years. She was crowned Mother of the Year in 2017 by the Posse.
Toni was very active with Tuolumne County Aquatic Masters and had been for about ten years. She loved to compete in meets all over Northern California. Toni was also interested in and great at oil painting and photography. She had great oil paintings in their houses and always wanted to grow those hobbies.
Toni was always easy to get along with, extremely friendly, and willing to help. She was a magnificent person we were fortunate to have in our lives. She also leaves behind immediate family members, Jeff, Shaun, Skip, Duncan, Karrie, Andy and Linda Field, and Tony, Julie and Danny Mace; Ty, Dawn, Liz and Tyrus Jack Wivell.
We, our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, all additional family and friends, were blessed with Toni and we know she will have a good life in heaven.