Yvonne Sara Kilbourne's Obituary
In Loving Memory, Yvonne Sara Kilbourne - Big Rapids
Yvonne Sara Kilbourne was born Yvonne Elvira Sandkulla in Fort Bragg, CA in 11/14/1931, during the Great Depression. Her parents were William Charles Sandkulla, a carpenter, and Irene Marie Sandkulla (nee Bassi), a schoolteacher with a BS teaching degree from San Jose Teacher’s College. Her parents, from Elk met in grade school in Point Arena. She was the oldest sister of Joelle Nicolson and Charles “Bud” Sandkulla.
Her family moved around so frequently that she may have attended most of the public schools in San Francisco. With each move the goal was to leave the place better than they had found it, a habit she adapted to her everyday life. They lived on Oak Street, then Clayton Street in a 3 rd floor flat of an old Victorian where her mom washed clothes with a washing board and hung the laundry out the high window. Another home was on Stanyon Street. The 1940 Census shows her living at 1233 34 th Ave at age 8 with her parents (both age 35), Joelle (age 6), Charles (age 5), and Uncles Joe Bassi (age 34) and Alfred Deltorchio (age 23). When Bud was just a baby, her mom asked her to look after him in the yard where she encountered a big black snake slithering towards baby Bud in his bassinet. This experience initiated lifelong fear of snakes.
When she was a teenager, Yvonne became very ill, and the family doctor accurately diagnosed her appendicitis. She was rushed to the hospital just in time. Her stay in the hospital inspired her lifelong passion for nursing. One newspaper article described her as a talented actress while studying at UC Berkeley, and she enjoyed acting, however, she wanted to save people’s lives just as her life was saved that day. She was proud of having graduated from Polytechnic High School in 1949, a school notable for teaching trades and for its diversity, the most popular student, her student body president was black. She also attended City College of San Francisco, and UC Berkeley. She trained at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) receiving her Registered Nursing degree in 1954. During her training she would care for pregnant women on the polio wards. The state-of-the-art iron lungs had to be monitored 24/7 less the women pass away from paralysis of the lung muscles caused by polio. Nurses would perform blood
transfusions, intravenous glucose feeding, insert and replace catheters, blow noses, bathe, and change bedpans all through the portholes of the chamber for pregnant women confined to the iron lungs for weeks to months until their symptoms of polio subsided usually in weeks to months. The polio pandemic peaked in 1952, and she witnessed the lifesaving effects of the polio vaccine first developed by Dr. Jonas Salk.
During her training she met Marjorie Morse’ an RN who introduced Yvonne to Christianity and adopted her changing her name to Yvonne Sara Morse. Religion was fundamental in her daily adult life, despite growing up an atheist. She always found a church to attend that welcomed all people without judgement and was a United Church of Big Rapids parish nurse until the age of 89. She also enjoyed attending services at
Immanual Lutheran Church. It was on a religious retreat in Mexico that she, working as a nurse, was able to stop smoking, after the young participants were told that they could not smoke; she knew she had to set an example and not smoke as well.
She has worked as a nurse across the country: Stanford Hospital in SF, New York (Rockefeller Institute, New York Hospital), Mills College Infirmary in CA, Michigan (New Grace Hospital in the delivery room and newborn nursery in Detroit, Wayne State University, Detroit Metropolitan, and Big Rapids Community Hospitals), and San Francisco General Hospital (Ward 4A the neuro ICU stepdown unit). While working in
Illinois Masonic Hospital in Chicago and attending the Fourth Presbyterian Church she met and married Edwin MacDonald Gault, June 11 th , 1960. After childbirth she alerted her care team that she was losing too much blood, but they didn’t initially believe her. A blood transfusion saved her life though she was infected with hepatitis that she then recovered from.
Yvonne is survived by her four children: Theodore MacDonald Gault; Jean Yvonne Griffiths (Mark Griffiths); Elizabeth Sara Morningstar (Michael Burdick); and Judith Morse Gault (Karl Liedtke). She is survived by her 6 grandchildren: Cory Ivor and Caitlin Griffiths, her live-in caregiver; John Clarence Morningstar, who grew up with her, his wife Kasey Morningstar and great grandbaby, Francis Michael Morningstar; and Erin
Irene, Julia Rose and Amanda Claire Liedtke who have happy memories vacationing with her. She is survived by her wonderful nephews: Dave (Lee Ann Savidge), Joshua, and Dennis Sandkulla; Erik, Oliver, Jeb, Aaron (Pauline), Edwin, and Wade (Tania) Nicholson; Dave and Jez Kelly; Paddy, Taika and Sean-Pierre Collings. She is survived by her wonderful nieces Inger, Lasmai, and Lara Nicholson, Ruby Kelly, Jade and Brooke Collings. Yvonne loved staying in touch with all her relatives and especially
enjoyed fond memories of visiting the Sandkulla Ranch with all her cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents during the summer growing up, at her parent’s 50th wedding anniversary, and had been planning a trip to Dorothy Cong at the Sandkulla Ranch.
Yvonne recognized that her marriage was unhealthy and divorced Ed, leaving with all 4 children and $57 dollars. She left without credit cards, a saving account, or a car (unfortunately everything was in the man’s name in those days). Luckily, as a nurse, she could always find a job and she bought a car for less than $57 to start again. (Later, their children brought them together to live separately but in the same town, Big Rapids, MI.) Through church, Yvonne met, and married Stewart Kilbourne and they moved to Big Rapids in 1972. While working as a nurse at Big Rapids Hospital during a tornado, she and her coworkers evacuated the patients to the basement as they were in the direct path. As part of her hypocritic oath to improve medical care, she reported that nurses without formal training to administer anesthesia were being asked to do that. Instead of being recognized for doing the right thing, she was disparaged by some of her coworkers. Her work environment at Big Rapids Hospital became unhealthy and she left. Notably, adequate training in anesthesia is now required by Michigan State law for nurses. At Detroit Metropolitan Hospital, despite wearing all the protection available at the time, she contracted TB from her patient. While working at San Francisco General Hospital, she tested positive for asymptomatic TB and was treated for a year. In addition, she was working at San Francisco General hospital during the 1989 earthquake and volunteered for extra shifts because a section of the Bay Bridge had collapsed and healthcare workers from across the bay were not able to come into work. She one cared for Nelson Mandela at SF General. Leading by example, she was a devoted extremely hard-working nurse arriving 1 hour early to work each day even in blizzards and natural disasters. She would come home exhausted, often rocking in her
rocking chair and listening to music to prepare herself for the next day at work. She shared stories of her experiences caring for people who had survived sometimes devastating accidents at the dinner table.
Having experienced episodes of depression at times in the past, Yvonne was an advocate for destigmatizing mental illness, research to improve the lives of those with mental illness and supporting people and their families with mental illness. She served as secretary for the local National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) meetings in Big Rapids for years. As a receipt of two corneal transplants, she was grateful for the gift of sight she had received from unknown donors and wanted to pass it forward as a donor herself if possible. She was particularly fierce at double solitaire, and Scrabble. She enjoyed gardening, long walks, swimming, cats, crossword puzzles, James Mitchner’s historic fiction, music, making brownies, baking apple pie, being an energetic Nana and talking to everyone. One of her favorite parts of a family trip to Washington D.C. was talking to and supporting the strangers she met on the Greyhound bus ride who were overcoming hardships. Finally, she was an exceptional role model supporting her community and a proud citizen of the United States of America. Her only regret was that she had once initially voted for Richard Nixon. She passionately advocated for change to improve our country. At 92 years old she was experiencing memory loss though still was eager to help at her assisted living facility, Big Rapids Fields. She passed away following pelvic and hip fractures after a fall; she suffered from osteoporosis. Her family
has come together to navigate through this difficult time and will be having a celebration of life later in September at United Church. We are so grateful to have had her in our lives. She was a devoted and loving mom and nana with grit. In lieu of flowers, to honor her memory please donate to NAMI or your favorite charitable organization.
Care and arrangements are entrusted too the Mohnke Janowicz Funeral Home in Big Rapids,
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