Signa Jean Crutcher

Signa was born on April 23rd , 1930, in Turlock, California, to Aram and Mary Shabazian who
came to the US from Armenia. She graduated from Turlock High School in 1947 and Modesto
Junior College in 1950. Signa met James Lee Crutcher on a blind date, arranged by their friends.
They were married in 1951 and moved to their home in Carmichael, in 1957, where they lived
for all the remaining years of their lives. They were blessed with 4 boys, Rob, Jon, Dave, and
Scott. Signa was a devoted wife and mother. Through 59 years of marriage, she loved and cared
for her husband Jim, even when his health declined and when they were challenged by the tragic
death of their son Jon. She loved Jon dearly, as she loved all 4 of her boys, even with the
challenges their adult lives sometimes presented.

When her boys were older, Signa sought work outside her home. Initially, she worked as a
sales clerk at Weinstock’s Department store. Later, she secured a job with the California State
Board of Equalization and eventually found a position with the California State Community
College System in the chancellor’s office, working as the executive assistant of the vice-
chancellor. Signa enjoyed her job and continued working into her later years. Even after she
formally retired, she returned to work for the State of California as a retired annuitant.

Signa loved to travel. She visited Europe several times. She also visited places closer to home,
including Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington, as well as several places in her home state of
California. However, the place she loved and visited most often was the town of Yountville in
Napa Valley where she always stayed at the Napa Valley Lodge—her home away from home. In
the mornings, she enjoyed eating breakfast, sitting outside reading, taking in the sunlight and
peacefulness of the Napa Valley.

Signa loved to walk. Hardly a day passed that she did not walk somewhere. For many years, she
walked at least 2 miles a day and in her later years she walked to the grocery store nearly every
day. Signa was also a runner. In 1980, she won the Roseville Community Hospital Granite Bay
5K run in the 50-59 year-old division.

Signa loved art. She enjoyed music, especially jazz and classical. She was a regular lister to
Marian McParland’s Piano Jazz on NPR and she got to hear McParland play live at the Jazz
Showcase in Chicago on a visit there. Signa was a reader. She loved poetry as well as prose,
inspirational and religious works as well as New York Times best sellers and biographies. She
also loved the classics. She read every one of Thomas Hardy’s lengthy novels and many of Jane
Austen’s. Every morning, she read and studied her Bible. Signa owned several dictionaries,
which she consulted to learn new words and their derivations. She also owned a globe to find
places mentioned in articles or books she was reading. She loved museums and was a longtime
member of the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento.

Signa was an intelligent and creative person and an excellent writer. She wrote beautiful hand-
written letters and cards to those she knew. She studied calligraphy and drawing and was
proficient at both. Despite her considerable intelligence, Signa was modest to a fault. She was
that rarest of human beings: an excellent listener. She loved to hear the thoughts and ideas of
others.

Signa was a Christian with a deep faith in God’s love and purpose in her life, and she lived that
faith. She embraced and loved whoever God placed in her path. No one was outside the circle of
her love. It was simply impossible not to feel the love that she offered to every person she met.
Whether you were a new acquaintance, her dearest friend, sister, brother, son, next door neighbor
or someone she encountered during one of her daily walks, she always had a smile and a kind
word. Love streamed from Signa’s heart as the light from the sun. It was who she was. When
anyone else experienced good fortune or was happy, Signa was happy.

Signa had many friends and acquaintances. She treasured her relationships and friendships. Each
of her close friends has expressed how special and unique their relationship with Signa was. She
was their ‘always’ or ‘forever’ friend. Cultivating friendships was one of Signa’s greatest
strengths: She raised friendship to an art. Signa’s friendships were not restricted to people. She
loved and befriended all creatures great and small, including the many cats that entered her life
in such curious ways. She adopted and shared her home with several of them, the most recent of
which, Gracie-Mae, was her companion to the last. She also loved the birds that nested in her
trees, and even the quarrelsome squirrels that raced up and down those trees.

Of all the things that Signa loved and enjoyed, sitting outside on the deck of her Carmichael
home certainly was at the top of her list. She loved just sitting, reading the newspaper, or
drinking her morning coffee. She was happiest, though, when friends or family were there with
her to share the experience…and perhaps a glass of wine with some crackers and cheese.

Sadly, Signa died on September 17th, 2022. She is survived by her sons Rob, Dave and Scott, her
sister, Rosemary Selland, and her brother, Armen Shabazian, as well as her daughter-in-law
Linda Crutcher, her grandchildren, nieces, and nephews, as well as her many friends, and, of
course, by her beloved Gracie-Mae who has found a new, loving home with Barbara and her
family. Signa herself will survive in the memories of her friends and family who will never
forget this remarkable human being.

In accordance with her wishes, there was no formal funeral service. Her cremains and those of
her husband Jim were placed in a comingled grave in the Fair Oaks Cemetery on Olive St. in
Fair Oaks, CA.