Yvonne Sara Kilbourne, 92, of Big Rapids, passed away Friday, August 2, 2024, at Big Rapids Fields. She was born November 14,1931 in Fort Bragg, CA to William Charles Sandkulla, a carpenter, and Irene Marie (Bassi/Sandkulla), a schoolteacher with a BS degree in teaching from San Jose State University. Her parents met in grade school in Point Arena. She was born Yvonne Elvira Sandkulla the oldest sister of Joelle Nicolson, and Charles “Bud” Sandkulla. Her family moved around so frequently that she may have attended most of the schools in San Francisco. With each move the goal was to leave the place better than they found it, a habit she adapted to her everyday life. They lived on Oak Street, then Clayton Street on the 3rd floor of an old Victorian Flat house where her mom washed clothes with a washing board and hung the laundry out the high window. One home was on Stanyon Street. The 1940 Census shows her living at 1233 34th Ave at age 8 with William and Irene Sandkulla (both age 35), Joelle (age 6), Charles (age 5), 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 instigated her lifelong fear of snakes.
When she was a teenager, she 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. In a newspaper article they had 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. She also attending City College of San Francisco, UC Berkeley, and Mills College as an undergraduate. She trained at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) receiving her Registered Nursing degree. 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, change bedpans through the portholes of the chamber for pregnant women confined to the iron lungs until their symptoms of polio subsided usually in weeks to months though some would suffer permanent damage. The polio pandemic peaked in 1952, and she could witness the lifesaving effects of the polio vaccine first developed in by Dr. Jonas Salk. During her training she met Marjorie Morse an RN who introduced Yvonne to Christianity and adopted her. 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 Immanuel 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, New York (Columbia), Chicago, Michigan (Wayne State University, Detroit Metropolitan, and Big Rapids Hospitals), and San Francisco General Hospital (Ward 4A the neuro ICU stepdown unit). While working in Chicago and attending the Fourth Presbyterian Church she met and married Edwin MacDonald Gault, June 11, 1960.
She 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); her six grandchildren, Cory Ivor and Caitlin Griffiths, her live-in caregiver: John Clarence Morningstar who grew up with her, his wife Kasey Morningstar and her 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 accounts, 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. Their children later brought them together to live separately but in the same town, Big Rapids, MI. Later, 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 observed the tornado directly approach. 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. 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.
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, 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 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 proud citizen of the United States of America. Her only regret was that she had once 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. In lieu of flowers, to honor her memory please donate to NAMI or your favorite charitable organization.
Care and arrangements are entrusted to the Mohnke Janowicz Funeral Home in Big Rapids.
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