In Loving Memory of a wife, mother and dear friend: Mary Kathryn (Kay) Sigler passed away in Morgan Hill, CA on Thursday, June 16, 2011, at the age of 94. She was born September 11, 1916, in Belle Plaine, IA to parents Charles Theodore Myers and Mayne Cordelia Paine.
She is survived by her husband, Kerney Sigler, her daughter Jacqueline Wildhirt of Oregon and her son, Craig Martin in Morgan Hill. She is also survived by six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. She had an older brother, Leland and a younger sister, Louise, all of whom have predeceased her.
In her school years she met her husband to be G. Dick Martin and they were wedded by Minister, William Kent on June 20, 1937 at Nashua, IA. Mary Kathryn accepted an opportunity to go to Sutter County, CA for training to be a cosmetician so the newlyweds went to live in Yuba City, CA, where she received her license.
There are two children from this marriage: a girl, Jacqueline, was born in Sutter county, CA in 1941: and a boy, Craig, was born in Sutter county, CA in 1945. While the children were growing up and getting educated, there was a divorce between Dick and Mary Kathryn. She moved from Sutter County to the Sacramento area where she found employment with the civil service.
In the meantime, her daughter married a young man from engineering school and they moved to Beirut, Lebanon. Her son had volunteered for naval service and was sent to Japan.
While Jacqueline Martin Dalloul was pregnant with her second child and living in Beirut, Lebanon with her Lebanese husband, Mary Kathryn went to be with her. Without any previous experience in this kind of travel, she rode by rail to New York, then took a large German cargo ship to Lebanon over the rough oceans and through strange countries, some not so friendly. She documented her travels with maps and descriptive anecdotes and came up with a written script she called Odyssey of a Novice.
After a year of working daily in Lebanon her work permit expired and she was required to leave the country. She was encouraged and helped by her good friends to settle in Sacramento again.
She moved into a large boarding house for men and women where she met Kerney Sigler who was also living there. They became best friends and were married on 26 July, 1970 at the Reno courthouse. This marriage has lasted for 41 years.
Mary Kathryn was a doer. If there was a project which needed pushing along, she was there to do it. She loved local politics and held several important positions in the League of Women Voters. She was active in San Mateo and was chairman of the county Transportation committee.
She was a dedicated reader of non-fiction particularly favoring stories such as the biographies of the Presidents- Carolyn Heilbrun, George Will, Joan Didian, Margerie Williams, Saul Bellows, Jamie Bassinger, Maeves Lindberg and Florence King were just some of her favorites.
She worked hard and acquired a real estate license and became expert in Malibu properties, having gone through the building of her own home in the Malibu Hills.
She joined the Ventura County writer’s club and here is where she learned writing was fun and she produced two novels.
In the later years of her life she and Kerney lived in Las Vegas, Grover Beach, CA and then moved to Morgan Hill to be closer to Craig.
