Clarice Ann Kemp

Clarice Ann Kemp passed away peacefully at the age of 88 on June 20, 2023 surrounded by her loving children and grandchildren.

Born in San Francisco, CA, she was the daughter of Maurice and Clarice O’Donnell, and sister to Marcia.  She graduated from Presentation High School in San Francisco, CA.  She was married to George Richard Kemp on Sept 1, 1956, started a family in 1957 in Linda Mar, CA, then moved to Mill Valley, CA in 1960.  As a child she spent summers in the warm and pleasant Sonoma Valley, away from the San Francisco fog. In 1977 she achieved her dream of owning a home in the Sonoma Valley when she moved to Glen Ellen.  In October of 2017 she lost this home to the North Bay Wine Country Wildfires.  She accepted this loss with grace, expressing how she felt like one of the lucky ones. She purchased a new home in the Sonoma Valley near two of her children in 2018, where she lived until her passing.

She was proud to be one of the four founding partners of Birthright of Marin, and she graciously and generously opened her home to single mothers. During the 1970s she was also an active volunteer supporting Vietnamese refugees who were settling in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Clarice provided childcare in her home while raising her five children as a single mother. In the late 1970s, she graduated from Santa Rosa Junior College and began her career as a Psychiatric Technician at Napa State Hospital. 

Clarice had a love of animals, adding dogs, cats, even chickens to her family home in Mill Valley!  Most recently she adopted two hard-to-place Chinese Crested dogs, siblings, from a local shelter.  She was also an avid New York Times crossword puzzle enthusiast and could be found completing these challenging games up until her final days.

She is survived by her five children: Colleen (Frank), Daniel (Kristie), Elizabeth (Michael), Teresa (Arnold), Brian (Dawn), and her eleven grandchildren: Drake, Connor, Rachel, Genevieve, Kyle, Matthew, Austin, Luke, Sophie, Collin, and Francesca. Clarice was predeceased by her beautiful sister Marcia Shuchat.

A funeral mass will be celebrated at St Cecilia Catholic Church in San Francisco on Tuesday, June 27, at 1:00 P.M. followed by a burial at Holy Cross Catholic cemetery where she will be buried alongside her mother’s family.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to animal shelters.

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