1966
May 08, 1948- June 30, 2017
Vincent Gene Fieth, Jr., long time resident of Sutter County, died June 30, 2017 at his Yuba City home.
He is survived by his wife, Sheri Huchet Fieth; their five children, Derek Fieth, Katie Beth Fieth, Davin Fieth, Susanna Terry and April Lee Spencer.; eight grandchildren, his much beloved Aunt Sue Fieth and his sister Darlene McLaughlin.
Vincent was a highly respected realtor for Century 21 for over 30 years. He joyfully spent much of his time working with Scouts and the Young Men's program at LDS church where he gave loving service to everyone including birthday songs over the phone that everyone looked forward to.
He was an avid fisherman and hiker and a loving father with a true work ethic and an enormous heart. He will be sorely missed.
Funeral services will be Saturday, July 08, 2017 at 10 am at LDS Church on Butte House Rd, Yuba City. All who knew and loved Vincent are welcome to come.
Its an odd emotional thing to read your Dad's obituary. To be in your childhood home and not see
him. To walk by his office where he could be found if he wasn't out working in the yard, and not stop to talk for a minute. To touch his belongings knowing they will be gone the next time you visit the home you grew up in. Knowing that the next time you go to your childhood home it will be to help your Mom pack it up and move somewhere else without him.
My Mom called me to let me know of my dad's passing. He had been struggling with severe depression and early signs of dementia (a disease he greatly feared, especially as he watched it attack his mother and Grandma) since late November (2016) and gave up. He hadn't been eating, had no desire to leave the house and wasn't interested in talking to anyone. It was so unlike the Dad I always knew, the one who would leave us a message on our answering machine, get cut off before he finished because he talked too long and call back to finish the message. I'm not even sure when was the last time he took a phone call from me. Months had passed since we talked. I honestly didn't expect my Dad to live much past Christmas of this year the way things were going but I did not expect that phone call that day.
We flew out to California July 05th and stayed for a week. His funeral was on Saturday the 08th and in-between the funeral and leaving I had helpful conversations with family members, heard great stories about my Dad and had time to say good bye to my childhood home.
My Dad did not have an easy childhood. He grew up mostly on a ranch in Meridian, CA with his father, Vincent Sr., an abusive alcoholic, his mother Marjorie and younger sister Dee. He attended a one room school for the first few years and then a larger school. Due to his Dad's behavior he went back and forth between the ranch in Meridian and homes with relatives yet they always ended up back in the same situation. When he wasn't in school and after he finished his chores he was out wandering around the Sutter Bypass, collecting, fishing and hunting all by himself. Around 10 years old he became his Dad's designated driver and would drive him to the bar on weekends and wait for him in the car. In 2010 Merdian had 358 people and I am sure it did not have more in 1958. Yet, my Dad never complained about his childhood, he rarely even talked about it. He simply tried to help his Mom and to stay out of the way. His mom divorced his Dad when he was a teenager.
Dad on right.
My Dad attended Sutter High School where he was the student body president, a great athlete and part of the high school band. At his funeral my sister met a man named Bruce Minton who was one of my Dad's best friends. He verified a few of the stories we heard of my Dad growing up, specifically the one where he and his friends went water skiing in an irrigation canal. One of them had a pair of water skis but no access to a boat so they improvised. They tied a rope to a truck, jumped in the canal, put on the skis and signaled when they were ready for the driver to start driving. Country boys. He loved visiting his Uncle Ray, his Dad's brother and his wife Sue Fieth out in Oroville. I think he felt the happiest there. They owned a beautiful ranch (rice farmers) and he looked forward to working with them there. He spent a lot of time backpacking and hiking with his parents when things were going well. Growing up I remember him going into the mountains to hike and fly fish in his secret fishing holes. He was an excellent fly fisherman and it was really the only type of relaxation he spent time on. He didn't care much for school or even going to church but with encouragement from his Mom and Grandma applied to BYU and got accepted.
Water skiing anyone?
Water skiing later on, behind a boat.
Provo, Utah, where he attended college and Guadalajara Mexico, where he served his mission, are the only places he lived that were farther than 1 hour from his home town. Only 6-7 years of his life were lived out of Northern California. After returning from his mission he met up with is Mom in SLC who had also just returned from serving a mission, and then went home to see his Dad. It was then, when he was around 23 that he held his Dad in his arms as he bled to death. Not an easy life.
He met my Mom one day as he was on his way to a home teaching appointment. She was walking ahead of him and he said, "I thought I knew all the cute girls in this apartment complex." She turned around and said, "Not all of them." He promptly inquired about my mom from the girls he home taught and they were married shortly after in the Oakland temple. Throughout his life he was a devoted home teacher, taking on multiple routes. For most of my life in Yuba City the Oakland temple was the nearest temple. I remember throughout my whole life at home he would drive Senior Citizens from our stake to the Oakland Temple on the Third Thursday of each month, leaving at 5:00 in the morning so they could have a chance to serve in the temple. We had 7 people in our family and a 12 passenger van mostly so he could drive as many people who couldn't drive themselves to the temple.
My parents briefly lived in Sacramento, CA near my Mom's parents while he sold insurance and then moved to a house on Bridge Street in Yuba City and he began working for Century 21. I was always confused how my Dad went from majoring in engineering, (something I could easily see him doing) then seminary teaching and family life counseling which his degree was in, to selling real estate. My Mom told me that my Dad used to spend summers near Tahoe working on roads for his engineering degree before they met. One semester he took a class an engineering class at BYU, did poorly and then decided he couldn't be an engineer and switched majors. He was a talented relator and loved helping families buy homes to raise their families in. It was his favorite to close on a house as close to Christmas as possible so the family could have Christmas in their new home.
His Spanish served him well in church callings and real estate. He may have been more fluent after his mission than during. He did an amazing job keeping up his Spanish, even serving as the Elder's Quroum President, in the Spanish branch at age 62. He had an amazing work ethic, he never just sat down to relax but was always on the phone, visiting people or out in the yard.
This last story is Jared's favorite. Before we came back to Virginia my Mom and I cleaned out his dresser. When we got to the last drawer I found a bag full of hide a keys, fitting I thought for a real estate agent. I looked closer at them and noticed that many of them had masking tape on them with numbers written on them. My Dad was so well organized and prepared that he had hide a keys full of money in his drawer so if there was an emergency he could grab them and take care of us. This is so like my Dad. Always prepared, ready to take care of his family and follow counsel given. Great things to be.
Jared was very impressed by the amount of money my Dad had set aside, just sitting in his dresser. The envelopes are from a yard sale in 2006.
I feel fortunate that I always had a good, strong relationship with my Dad. I never doubted his love or support for me. He had his own struggles and challenges and was a very particular person (he hated dishes left in the sink, messy rooms, spending money, change in most forms, us hanging pictures on the walls in our rooms (don't put holes in the wall!!)) and had very high expectations of his children which could be difficult and hard to understand but was there to support myself and my siblings whenever we needed it.
Daddy Daughter trip.
This is my favorite picture of us. I believe I was home from BYU Idaho for Thanksgiving, so maybe 2003? Possibly 2002. Our yard always had crazy amounts of leaves, and he hated to have even one leaf on the grass (OCD much?)
July 08th 2017. The funeral was held at the Stake Center in Yuba City and was very well attended, the chapel and overflow were full. He touched a lot of peoples lives and will be missed by many. He never came across to me as one having a lot of "friends" in the sense that most people use the word but I know he did impact a lot of people.
Sutter Cemetery
Display at funeral at the church.
My sister Susanna saw this great idea to use a fishing pole and fishing line to display the pictures since my dad loved Fly Fishing.
