Alice Stoner

Sally Stoner A Mass of Christian Burial will be held for Alice M. Stoner, 88 of Chico, on Saturday, January 6, 2018 at 10:30 a.m. at St John the Baptist Catholic Church and a Rosary service on Friday, January 5th at 4 p.m. also at the church. Sally passed away on January 1, 2018 in Chico. She was born on October 6, 1929 in Richmond, Indiana to Richard Leo and Alice Louise Zeyen. When she was three years old her aunt began calling her Sunshine Sally and Sally became her name. She was raised in Fostoria, Ohio and attended Marygrove College and St Vincent's Nursing School in Toledo, Ohio. She received her R.N. degree in 1951 and married her high school sweetheart, Don Stoner, in 1953. Sally, Don and three girls moved to Chico in 1957 from Salt Lake City, Utah. Her music career began at the age of ten when she played for the Sunday afternoon Benediction on a little Estay foot pump organ in a small church in Ohio. While in high school she would play two daily Latin Requiem High Masses daily then walk three blocks to high school being late to her first class. In 1964 she started playing Liturgical services at St. John's. During that time she received a B.A. in music and a masters degree in organ performance from C.S.U.C. and a certificate in Pastoral Studies from the University of Loyola New Orleans. Through her contacts, the parish was able to obtain the first tracker action organ in the Sacramento Diocese. During these years at St. John's she has played at over one thousand weddings, six hundred funerals, and countless graduations, school masses and other occasions. Sally has survived eleven pastors, and thirty two associate pastors. She was a member of American Guild of Organists, National Pastoral Musicians and Sacred Music Society. In November of 2017 St. John's dedicated the choir loft to the memory of Don and Sally Stoner. Her survivors include her eight children, Joan Stoner of Chico, Jean (Lennie) Wood of Chico, Jane (Gary) Alt of Oroville, Don (Sandy) Stoner of Chico, David (Margaret) Stoner of Chico, Jill (Jeff) Brooks of Portland, OR, Douglas Stoner of Chico, Daniel (Corrinna) Stoner of Chicago; twelve grandchildren; eight great grandchildren and three great great grandchildren; one sister Jean Endicott of Fostoria, Ohio; one brother, Jim Zeyen of Mount Vernon, Ohio. Donations may be made in her memory to the Notre Dame School Music Program in care of the Brusie Funeral Home.