Sunday, November 30, 2025

November 30th, 2024 would’ve been mother’s 98th birthday. It is also her husband, my dad’s 100th birthday. Both Alma and Art Starr my parents had the same birthday. This year, 2024 I remembered them by launching birthday helium balloons near the place where my mom’s ashes are buried. I’ve always wanted to do this because their lives were so important to me and my family. I think this will be a tradition for me the rest of my life. Both my mom and dad‘s birthdays, Christmas, and Thanksgiving are the difficult times and I miss them most. May they rest in God‘s embrace.

Mom’s Resting Place

Mom’s Resting Place

Mom’s Resting Place

Today is April 16th. Mother has been gone for three years exactly today. I find it interesting that it’s also orthodox Easter. Easter is a time to remember the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. My mother had faith in Jesus, as do I. And Easter is a comforting time to remember that Jesus overcame death. My mother died in 2020 just after Easter. And this day three years later, landed on a Sunday on orthodox Easter. For me, this is a comforting thought. As I remember my mother. Although I miss her every day, she is never forgotten. I still live in the house. She left me with all of her things. It’s been difficult giving things away that she cherished. Still, I love the fact that many things in the house, including crosses, angels, and light houses, remind me of the Lord and her faith in God. I pray today that she is happy and blessed in God’s kingdom. God bless your mama. I love you always, your son, Jeffrey. 

Today Mom would have been 96. Interestingly, my dad (and mom's husband, Art) had the same birthdate. Dad would have been 98 today as well. As I remember my mother and father on this day, I remember giving them both gifts on their birthdays as a kid. Today, I would give anything to be able to tell my mother how special she was and still is to me. I miss her laugh and advice in dealing with challenges in life. Mother knew so much about little things, like how to sew, home remedies for colds, and other things like knitting and embroidering. She taught me a lot about compassion for others, and she was always there for me. I pray today that my mother is rejoicing in Heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ, along with all my other family members, Dad, Michael, Chris, and Debbie. I will always love both my parents and remember all of my families' birthdays. May they know that I love and miss them every day.

Happy 96th birthday, Mom 

Alma and her two oldest boys

A family Photo

Mother age 49

Today is April 26, 2022. And I am Alma‘s son Jeff. It has been two years and 10 days since mother passed away. As I remember mothers life, I think about all the wonderful things she did for others. Mother was a certified nurses assistant in Arizona, and she used to take care of elderly people at Cottonwood Village,  in Cottonwood Arizona. Mothers compassion for elderly people and children was unprecedented. She loved taking care of her house, and especially growing flowers. Each morning, mom used to sit in the backyard and drink her coffee. She love to watch the red cardinals and birds as well as hummingbirds in her backyard. Mother grew irises around her backyard and roses which were one of her favorite flowers. Also in the backyard, mother had statues of angels and lighthouses. She loved lighthouses and crosses and there are on the walls of the house itself. Mother had a love of figurines and angels in particular. She used to reminisce about growing up in Oklahoma and shared with me about some of her experiences as a little girl during the great depression. Mom‘s father, Warren Turner, was a butcher. They also ran a general store for a time. To survive the great depression, my grandfather also drove a delivery truck between Texas and Oklahoma  for a fruit producer. They literally lived on some of  the fruit the produce company provided  and shared the produce with neighbors who were also starving during the great depression. My mother had quite a life. I don’t know as much about all the things she did in her 93 years on earth. There is so much more I would’ve liked to known about her. But still, I will love her forever. She was a wonderful mother, who was always there by my side. She never gave up on me. And for that I am eternally grateful. Rest in peace mother. I love you and will never forget you for the rest of my life.

Mother with Clara Mae at restaurant in Cottonwood

Mother

Mother at age 18

Dad, Mom, and mom's friend Betty at the beach

Group photo of Chris, Mom, me, and Deb

Mom in the kitchen

Mom at age 6 with her mother, Mae Turner

Mom and Dad at the beach

Mom and sister Debbie reuniting with Mom's childhood friend Louise

I’ve talked with Alma, for 20 years, while researching the Starr genealogy. She always had kind words/stories to talk about and sent me photos during this time. As happy as I was to talk with her, I loathed to have her talk, knowing that she was on O2 and at times, difficult. She is already sorely missed and blessed because she’s in heaven with her heavenly family . She was definitely a fighter and a lovely soul.my regret is that I never got the chance to meet her in person. Bless you Alma, all pain and suffering is gone and replaced with a new heavenly body✝️

A Tribute to My Mother
by Jeff Starr




My mom, Alma Dean Starr (Turner) was born November 30, 1926, in Haskell, Oklahoma, to Warren and Myrtle ("Mae") Turner. Mom's parents had 5 children. John, Glenn, Clara Mae, Gertrude, and Mom, the youngest. Later they settled in Okmulgee, where Warren was a grocer/butcher by trade, and hauled fruit to stores from Texas to Oklahoma, during the Great Depression/Dust Bowl years. Mom's father, Grandpa, also registered to fight in World War I. He also hauled fruit from Texas to Oklahoma during the depression years which kept them from starving and helped out their neighbors. Grandpa also ran a saw and knife sharpening shop next to the family home to supplement the family in his retirement years.

Mom's mother, Grandma, was a homemaker all her life. She took care of the house and made all the meals, while Grandpa was working. As a kid, I remember, going to Grandma's house, and sleeping in her feather bed, in the guest room. At 6 a.m., Grandma would come in the room and wake up Mom, Dad, and me to come to the breakfast table, as it was time to eat. Grandma used to rise at 4 a.m. and start cooking each morning, and could she cook! Grandma loved to cook meals and make pies and cakes, and she used to can jellies and jams in little mason jars and store them in the garage out back, too. Mom said Grandma gave her the job of cleaning the mason jars before canning the fruit. I also remember as a kid a little bell with a plaque hanging above Grandma's table, that said, "Good bread, good meat, good gosh, let's eat!" Mother and I both learned a lot from Grandma, who loved the Lord, read her Bible, and went to the local Baptist church. She was strict at times, but very loving in so many ways.

Mom married my dad, Art Starr, right after World War II. Dad also grew up in Oklahoma. He was the oldest of 7 children, and he and his family moved to Arvin, California, as a result of the Great Depression. (Dad often told me that his life was just like the character, Tom Joad, in the book, and the 1940 movie, The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck.) Right after, Dad joined the U.S. Army to fight for the nation and to help support his parents and siblings. My parents met at a dance in Modesto, Calif., while Dad was on leave. Dad had fought in Europe, and according to family rumors, Dad helped liberate prisoners in Dachau, one of the camps in Germany. After Mom married Dad, my parents bought a house (just across the street from my Mom's parents), in Avenal, California. They had Michael, in late 1945. Chris came along in 1946, and Debbie, in 1953. During that time, Dad worked for Standard Oil Company, and Mom was the homemaker. In 1957, Mom, Dad, and kids all moved to Bakersfield, about 90 miles south of Avenal. Dad had just got a new job at another oil company. They bought a 3-bedroom 2-bath house in Oildale, a suburb. I came along in 1964. We lived in Bakersfield until December 1982, before Dad's health got worse. At that point, we moved to Cottonwood, Ariz., where my Dad had a house built for Mom. Dad then passed away, only two months later, in February 1983.

From 1983 to 1989, our family went through several personal crises. One of which was my coming to prison to serve a very lengthy sentence. Through it all, my mother was strong and never gave up on helping our family, including me, the black sheep. She pulled herself up by her bootstraps, and at age 63, went to classes at Yavapai College, where she became an Arizona CNA (certified nurse's assistant). She began taking care of elderly people in the Cottonwood/Sedona area, and made enough to finish the payments on her home, and to support herself. Mother continued to be a CNA/Home Health nurse until about age 87, when she retired. Mom always stood by her children and grandchildren, no matter what. Her love and devotion to our family, and especially, to me, truly humbled me over all these years, and I'm grateful for every moment God gave her, to our family. She will be sorely missed always by my family and I. But I know she is in Heaven today. And there is peace in knowing that. I will say that because of the Lord and my mother's unconditional love for me my whole life, that finally broke me down to become who I am today, as a man. I struggled for years, but the Lord and my mother never gave up on me. And now, I can do NO LESS for them, or my family and friends! Today, and for the rest of my life, I will continue to honor my mother's memory, my family and friends, and, the LORD for all the grace and love He has shown to us.

My mother passed away yesterday, Thursday, April 16th, 2020, due to complications from COPD and cancer. She never got to see me released from prison, but I have the comfort in knowing that she is now free from pain, and I will see her again one day in God's kingdom. For all of you who knew my dear mom, my family and I thank you, for being a part of her life. Mother would want you all to know how much she appreciated your love and support to her, as well as to myself and our family. And thank you too for those of you who made her life better, in the various ways over all the time I was away from her in prison. I pray we never forget Mom's unconditional love, her giving spirit, or her many sacrifices and all that she gave to us, over her 93 years on this earth. May God bless and keep her always, and you as well, both now and in eternity.