Mabel Irene Stephens O'Rork (nee Newcomer)

May 5, 1925 - February 18, 2023

Mabel was born at home to Calvin and Edith Berkey Newcomer on May 5, 1925, near Arlington, Washington. She was the last child of eight born to the Newcomers. Mabel's parents and all but two siblings were born in and near Elkhart, Indiana. They were of the Mennonite faith and ancestors originated from Germany and then Bern, Switzerland.

Although Mabel and her family moved a great deal as a result of the Great Depression, Mabel was gifted with keen intelligence and a great interest in reading and learning all she could. Along with her reading expertise, she had an above-grade aptitude for math which enabled her to skip a grade in middle school. In 1940, the family lived in Santa Clara County, California and Mabel graduated from Santa Clara High School in 1942 when she was 17 years old.

During the summer of 1942, she met her first husband, Dean Stephens, while he was on leave from the Marine Corps during WWII. After a whirlwind courtship they married in September 1942 and then moved to La Jolla, California to be near Camp Pendleton where Dean was stationed.

Mabel gave birth to her first child, a son, Gary, in National City, California on January 2, 1945, just before the end of WWII. Soon after Gary was born, she and Gary moved to Blackfoot, Idaho, to be near Dean's parents until Dean was discharged from the service. Three daughters were born to Mabel and Dean in Idaho by 1952. Mabel and Dean moved their young and growing family to Alameda, California in the summer of 1953.

Mabel and family lived in Alameda until 1962. It was during those years that Dean built two sailboats. The second boat, the Charity, was built in the backyard of their home. Mabel went to work as a part-time teller at the Bank of America in Oakland to pay for the costs of building the boat. The boat was built in 2-1/2 years and launched in 1962. Soon after the launch, the family moved onto the 33-1/2 foot boat–all six of them. Mabel met that extreme challenge with her usual calm, determined manner. Dean's dream for the family was to eventually sail to and become immigrants of New Zealand. In the meantime, they sailed down to Morro Bay, California. They moored at the Morro Bay Boat Basin until March 1964 when they set-sail on the planned New Zealand trip. As it turned out due to daunting almost cyclone condition inclement weather they encountered on the Pacific, they returned to Morro Bay that summer, once again living there until the following summer.

With Gary and their oldest daughter, now living on their own, Mabel, Dean and their two younger daughters set sail for Hawaii on July 4, 1965. The cruise took a month with no mishaps. They enjoyed the Hawaiian Islands for a month and then set sail for a return trip to the West Coast arriving to the San Francisco Bay in October 1965, mooring in the Sausalito harbor for about a year. While there Mabel worked as a teller in the local bank.

They eventually obtained a berth in the Santa Barbara, California, mooring at the harbor there until 1967. Mabel once again worked at the local Bank of America. They loved the Santa Barbara area and Dean became well-known as a traditional boat builder in that coastal environment.

Late summer of 1967 the set sail for a trip down the coast, heading for a Baja California vacation experience. Sailing back from Baja was not without challenges, but they eventually returned to Santa Barbara where Mabel continued her employment at the Bank of America and Dean started building a fishing schooner for a local fellow.

In 1971, Mabel and Dean divorced. Mabel continued to live at the Santa Barbara harbor on the Charity with only her youngest daughter still living at home. It was during late 1972 that she met David O'Rork. They fell in love and married on December 31, 1973. Dave loved the Charity so the newlyweds divided the months living on the Charity and in a duplex they purchased in that city. When Dave opened up his own tax preparer business, Mabel got her tax preparer license worked with Dave in that business for many years, along with Mabel continuing to work part-time at Bank of America.

During those years Dave and Mabel sailed as often as they could and would cruise up and down the coast. They decided they wanted a larger sailboat so the Charity was sold and they purchased a 45 foot fiberglass sloop, which they named "Amabel," and it was moored in the same berth where the Charity had been moored for years.

When not working during the tax season, Mabel and Dave traveled America in their various recreational vehicles over the years, including a memorial trip to Alaska and cross-country to Florida and other parts of the country, including a visit to met and visit with Mabel's many Newcomer/Berkey cousins in Indiana.

They sold their tax business and retired in 1992. Their years of retirement were devoted to their recreational vehicle travels, family reunions and spending holidays surrounded by their children and grandchildren until Dave's passing in December 2011.

Mabel loved people. She never said an unkind word about anyone. She was generous, loving, thoughtful, and kind. She was predeceased by her parents, all of her seven siblings, her son Gary, both Dean and Dave, two grandchildren, Shannon and Kelly Brown, one step-grandchild, Colin, two step-children, Mike O'Rork and Patty Higgins, and many friends. She is survived by her three daughters, her daughter-in-law, two step-children, seven grandchildren, and thirteen great-grandchildren. Nieces and nephews still surviving number at least eleven, and grandnieces and grandnephews are too many to list here.

She will be missed far more than she could ever have imagined but she will lovingly live on in the memories, hearts, and lives of all who knew her.

A celebration of Mabel's life is pending. Mabel and Dave will be inurned in the Carpinteria Cemetery, Carpinteria, California.