Lake County pioneer family member Beryl Peoples passed away at Sutter Lakeside Hospital in Lakeport on Sunday, Oct. 23 from complications due to heart failure. She was 86. Family members had been in attendance during her hospital stay.Born in Kelseyville on March 7, 1919, in the house next to the bridge that is now the Serenity Day Spa, Beryl was the first child of Viola (Gross) Thomas and Delwin Lewis Thomas, second-generation pioneer family members. Beryl’s grandfather, Benton Lewis Thomas, who built this home, also hauled the materials for the first Kelseyville bridge with his team of mules. He eventually moved with his wife, Susan Frances (Fanny Gard) to the house and property at the end of Thomas Drive near Finley (now the Garcia Ranch).Beryl enjoyed accompanying her father, Del, to his pear ranch to the west of Adobe Creek and enjoyed overnighters with her grandparents.After completing her primary education at Kelseyville Grammar School, now Gard Street Elementary, Beryl moved from the Kelseyville home with her family, which by then included sister, Erlene and brother, Leroy, to the Joe Laughlin Ranch on Argonaut Road (currently the Riley-Davis Ranch). Soon sister, JoAnn was born and the family struggled during the Great Depression to keep the ranch afloat.Beryl worked at local fruit cutting and packing companies, and picked fruit and walnuts for her parents and the Gross and Thomas grandparents. She enjoyed the company of her cousins, including several double cousins, (two Thomases married two Grosses), and eagerly looked forward to the family’s yearly Fourth of July picnics at Lakeside County Park.She took piano lessons from George and Corabelle Piner in Kelseyville, and played with the orchestra at Kelseyville High School concerts.From her earliest years, she had a zest for reading. Principal Thaddeus Johnson recognized her intellect and talent and encouraged the “A” student to plan for college.Unfortunately, the family was not able to send her, but she did find a future with her first sweetheart, Charles Sylar, a member of the Hank Sylar family of Kelseyville, who swept her off her feet at one of the Saturday night old-time dances in Kelseyville. Charlie, who took voice lessons from the Piners, became an accomplished singer and performed on radio shows both locally and in the Bay Area.Beryl would accompany him delivering ice at various venues around the county, including the Jago Bay and Hobergs Resort. After marriage, the couple moved to San Francisco, where children, Thomas Charles and Carole Deanne were born.Eventually they moved back to Kelseyville and soon son, Steven Gary, was born. During the summers, Beryl packed pears at the Kelseyville Packing Company (now Adobe Creek Packing), and after becoming a single parent, met and married Harold Peoples, who managed the shed’s “monster” automatic packing machine each summer.Beryl and her children’s next years were spent in Indio, across the street from the Date Festival Fairgrounds, where Harold was a carpenter and where his children, Marilyn and Judith, grew up.Besides raising her family, Beryl packed tomatoes, worked seasonally at J.C. Penny, worked in food service at College of the Desert, where her son, Steven, attended, and became the assistant of a local opthamologist.After many years in Indio, the couple retired to Fort Bragg where they enjoyed membership in the local Footlighters theater group. It was at Fort Bragg that Beryl spent hundreds of hours diligently researching and recording the histories of the Thomas (Thomas Drive), Gross (Gross’s Cutoff), Gard (Gard Street) and Sylar (Sylar Lane) families, a passion she continued until her passing.When Harold’s health began to fail, they moved to Kelseyville, where Beryl looked after him until his death in 1987. Beryl moved to Brookside Retirement Residence in Ukiah in 2001, then back to her beloved Lake County in 2003, her last home at Aqua Village Mobile Home Park in Lakeport.Beryl is survived by her children, Steve (Cathy) Sylar, Carole Barnes (Wayne Hozie) and Tom (Kathy) Sylar; stepchildren, Marilyn (Don) Villaneuve and Judith Hempel and families; grandchildren, Natalie May Sylar, Rob Jackson, Michael, Mark, Scott and Kim Sylar; step-grandchildren, Nicole (Jim) Anderson; great-granddaughters, Kristin, Hannah and Kiley; nieces, Lori (Pat) McGuire and family, Connie (Sam) Wright and family, Jeannie (Terry) Lewis and family, Adele (Hong) Sylar and family, Dianna (Sylar) Linden and Susie (Peter) Colombo and family; cousins, Gwennie (Gross) Rush and family, Barbara (Gross) Schnabl and family, Geneva Gross and family, Thora Gard and family, Sue (Rowe) Cupples and family; and numerous other cousins; and great-grandchildren.A celebration of life will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 12 at Chapel of the Lakes Mortuary, 1625 N. High St. Lakeport, CA.In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Red Cross.For further info please call 263-0357 or 994-5611, or visit the Web site, chapelofthelakes.com.
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