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GILROY—Unladylike clinched the regular season Women’s Softball League title June 24 at Las Animas Veterans Park, topping Just 4 Fun 18-10.

OAKLAND—The Golden State Warriors claimed the NBA Championship crown, beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 105-97 on June 16 in Cleveland. It was the first title for the Oakland-based team in 40 years and the city celebrated the feat with a victory parade June 19. Gilroy residents, from left, Jimmy Pena, Zach Loo, Ryan Frascone, Travis “Small” Moulden and Eduardo Castro, were among the hundreds of thousands of fans who turned out to show their love for the newly minted champion Warriors. 

GILROY—Dreams of a walk-in health clinic for kids and parents on school grounds in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods hit a snag this week, at least it looked that way till officials huddled, checked city zoning rules and cured the problem.

A six-week summer camp that supports low-income kids with hands-on science, technology, engineering and math got underway this week at three Gilroy schools.

The annual Freedom Fest Run is set to return July 4 with a couple of twists.

GILROY—As day two of the Northern California Golf Association South Bay Zone Championship came to a close, the team representing Gilroy Golf and Country Club headed back to their vehicles feeling defeated.

GILROY—Caryl Simpson, the dynamo Gilroy businesswoman who designed t-shirts while living in a log cabin, accidentally created a gourmet food company that went global and was the guts and gumption behind the city’s iconic downtown garlic mural, died May 29 after a four-month battle with cancer. She was 67.“Everything has kind of dimmed. She brought amazing color to the world for a lot of people,” said her daughter, Heather Simpson-Bluhm of Hollister.“We’ve lost a person who gave the world an amazing gift of food and an appreciation for good food and art and gardening.”Simpson also is survived by a son, Ted, of San Jose, and his wife, Janda, and Heather’s husband, Greg, and their daughter, Hannah Caryl.Born in Columbus, Georgia on June 21, 1947, Caryl Lee Simpson was what her daughter described as an Army brat who moved about with her family in the United States and abroad, including Germany and Asia.The family settled long enough in Monterey County near Ft. Ord for Simpson to attend junior and senior high schools in there before going off to college in San Jose and San Francisco.In the 1970s, Simpson, a single mother of two, bought a piece of property off Hecker Pass Highway in Gilroy and built a log cabin with a garage studio for a fledgling t-shirt screening business that supplied garments to high school sports programs, banks and others.Soon, she was in such demand as a graphic artist and designer that she moved her business into the city as a full-fledged advertising agency with graphic design and screen-printing services, according to her daughter.Married and divorced twice, Simpson devoted herself to her children and her businesses, which ultimately included the popular Garlic Festival Store and Gallery, where she sold gourmet foods and cooking equipment and insisted on filling an entire wall with art for sale, much of it by local artists.“She was a single mom for much of our lives,” said her daughter. “She worked hard to raise us and make sure we did all our school work and also were exposed to things outside Gilroy, to travel and the big city.“’Can’t’ wasn’t an option for her, it didn’t matter that she was a woman, it didn’t matter than she was a single mom; it was like, ‘I can do whatever I want to do’, and that is what she always taught us.”When Gilroy decided to launch its homage to garlic, Simpson signed on and her booth became a popular mainstay of the Gilroy Garlic festival.Known for her quick wit and keenly honed sense of what is right, she even locked horns with festival organizers early on when she was sued for using the name “Garlic Festival.” Simpson prevailed.Her enthusiasm for promoting Gilroy through garlic became so infectious that downtown merchants and others rallied behind her idea to create a huge mural to celebrate the history of garlic in Gilroy. After a local artist designed the mural, Simpson imported muralists from Italy to render the work on a wall at the corner of Fifth Street and Monterey Road. Last year, twenty years after the original work was painted, she brought the same muralist back to give it a fresh coat.“She called it ‘Gilroy’s postcard to the world,’” her daughter said, “she was always all about promoting Gilroy for the festival and the garlic.”A artist, creative cook and Renaissance women who was always eager to explore, Simpson also founded Garlic Festival Foods, a 30-year-old firm that sells gourmet cooking items all over the world, including a cookbook she authored and published when she could not find a publisher. It has sold in the thousands.The gourmet food line was an accident, her daughter said.It started when Simpson concocted a huge batch of seasoning for a friend to take to a Bay Area zucchini festival in the 1980s. It was a big hit.That recipe became her signature gourmet condiment, Garli Garni, and when Simpson put it on the market it took off, leading to a line of foods and seasonings sold worldwide.Billed as ‘The flavors that made Gilroy famous,” the line includes seasonings, sauces, mustards, garlic, salsas, olives and more.Simpson also was among California’s first certified olive oil tasters and served for years on the state’s olive oil board.Along with way, she established and ran Café Aromas just south of Gilroy, where she also ultimately moved into a spacious home filled with a collection of eclectic, curious and always joyful art, and a beautiful garden where she enjoyed hosting parties for friends.Simpson loved beauty and friendship and, when she died, her family asked that, in lieu of flowers, people honor and remember her by planting a tree, smiling at a stranger or performing a random act of kindness. A memorial “party” will be held in July to celebrate Simpson’s life.Simpson was diagnosed in January and by April, after chemo treatments failed to halt the disease, she was told she was terminal.“We were shocked,” her daughter said. “We were kind of lead to believe she was going to beat it, that was our attitude all along.”

SAN MARTIN—The 71st U.S. Women’s Open is more than a year away, but the United States Golf Association released special ticket packages for the tournament Tuesday.

GILROY—As Bert Mar walked the grounds at South Valley Middle School, he was met with big smiles and warm greetings at every turn. Cars that whizzed by the school turned around when they saw him, the drivers eager to say hello. Mar recognized each instantly and answered them with a bright smile, a wave and a unique nickname he’d undoubtedly given them several years ago. He’s a familiar face in Gilroy—and for good reason.

GILROY—Under Construction outlasted Old City Hall 25-15 Friday to leave both clubs at 5-3 in the Men’s EE League standings at Las Animas Veterans Park.