Karmin McCrory

Karmin Jean Twigg McCrory of Davis, CA passed away on 2/12/2018. She was born on 01/22/1937 in Bronaugh Missouri, to John Wayne Twigg a farmer and Alice Veva Adams Twigg a stay at home mother.

She was the second oldest in a family of 5. She had an older Sister and 3 younger brothers.  Karmin’s family moved several times when she was growing up. While the boys were young, she would help do the household chores while Alois would sometime help her father.  She contracted polio at the age of 12 and overcame the prognosis of not being able to walk or have children.  She did not allow polio to limit her life in any way. She graduated from Plains Kansas High School with a class of 24 in 1954 She went to University of Kansas and graduated in 1957, she was able to count Wilt Chamberlain as a classmate in school.

She married and moved to Vacaville California 1962 with her 2 daughters. She began teaching for Vacaville School district in 1963.  She started teaching at Valley Oak Elementary in 1969 and finally moved to Davis in 1974. She taught first class through 5th in her career, she would be one the founding teacher in the Davis gifted program. She ended her 30 year teaching career in her favorite class the 5th grade gifted class, in 1993.

In 1991, before retiring, she opened her own business Accents in Downtown Davis. She wanted a shop where woman could come and get inexpensive accessories and jewelry. She later partnered with her friend Marne to add Moonshower Bath products to the store. Karmin also offered Color consulting and a line of makeup to the shop as well, she owned and operated the shop for 10 years until selling it, to officially retire and putter as she would say.

She had two careers and an active retired life and she not only raised two teenage daughters as a single mother, but she was a foster mother to 2 girls, hosted a Japanese exchange student and rented rooms to many UC Davis students. She helped raise a nephew, her grandchildren, and she has her husband’s niece stay when she was going to UC Davis.

She was a lifelong traveler, being raised in the Midwest, she wanted to see what the world beyond her zip code was like. She traveled across the US, and throughout California. As a college student she went to Boston to waitressed, both to earn money for school, but also to visit the east coast. She traveled to Ireland and England, cruised from Budpest to Amsterdam, cruised from Rome to Barcelona, took a train across Canada, made numerous trips to the resorts in Mexico. Visited Japan, traveled across Australia. She cruised the Mississippi on a paddle boat and she toured the old glass factories on the east coast. She welcomed the New Year in Las Vegas, New York (on Y2K), watched the Rose Parade in Pasadena. She saw “CATS” in London and “Cabaret” in New York. And she visited many of the National parks across the US.

Karmin loved to play Bridge, as she got older with more free time her bridge calendar expanded. She would play at least twice a week sometimes 4 to 5 times in a week. She would play duplicate in the afternoons on Mondays and on alternate Wednesdays, she had a bridge night at her house using laptops to play on-line so her neighbor with MS could play.

Karmin was a music lover, she played the Bassoon in High school and as adult in the Sacramento community Symphony. She also played the piano and organ. She loved to go the symphony and the Sacramento Jazz Festival. She loved Acappella singers, she was a singer in the Davis Sweet Adelines, and she taught chorale music as a volunteer for the kids at Valley Oak. She would go to performances of the Chanticleers, the Sacramento Gay Men’s chorus and other local chorale performances. She had season tickets for the Broadway musical series in Sacramento and the Davis Musical Theater company.

Karmin was an avid Seamstress/fabric artist, she was a member of the Embroiderers Guild of America Valley Oak Chapter, and she founded an EGA based quilt group call “The Block”. The Block would do quilt projects to expand their quilting abilities and they donated many quilts to different charities. The charities were usually ones that supported women and children. She would go to quilt shows, the state and county fairs to see the fabric art displays.

She loved to read and helped to organize a neighborhood book club.

She had been a member: of the Teacher’s State Council, Davis Teacher Union Negotiator, Davis Soroptomist, Downtown Davis Association.

She was a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.

Karmin gave to several charities, Children incorporated Capital Public Radio, Habitat for Humanity, Kansas University, Heifer International and the Red Cross.

Predeceased by John Wayne Twigg, Alice Veva Twigg,  Alois Twigg Potter, John Wayne Twigg Jr, .

She is survived by her husband Peter Lam, Daughters: Kayla Kenette McCrory and Alesia Marie McCrory, Son-in-law: Keith Hammonds, Grandchildren: Kristen Danielle Loranger and Konnor Brandon Zarate, Brothers, Harold Alvin Twigg, Frank Adams Twigg and numerous nieces and nephews.