Delia Ann (Murphy) Mansell

Delia Ann Murphy Mansell passed away peacefully on March 31, 2025 in Santa Rosa, CA with family by her side. She was born in Bend, Oregon to Emmett and Verna Murphy on February 8, 1931. 

Delia grew up with her older brother Patrick in Portland, Oregon where she attended Holy Redeemer Catholic School and St. Mary’s Academy before attending Seattle University and then transferring to the University of Portland where she joined the first cohort of women students. She graduated in 1953 with a Bachelors of Arts in English. Her childhood was highlighted with Sunday dinners with the aunts, trips to the ocean, her father’s poetry readings, and general shenanigans with classmates who became lifelong friends.

Dee met her beloved husband Francis C. Mansell, Jr. of New York through her brother Patrick when they were stationed together in the Army in 1952 in Seattle, Washington. Frank and Dee married in 1953 and soon moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where Frank worked as a civil engineer and where they raised a family of 5 daughters and 4 sons in Oakland, CA. Delia was an inspirational Mom extraordinaire as she balanced the needs of all her children with her love for reading, playing the piano, listening to opera, and sewing for her daughters. She also sewed many, many beautiful quilts; she loved swimming and skiing and camping across the Western states in the Volkswagen bus. When her youngest started school, she began work in a doctor’s office, an insurance office and her favorite, as a teacher’s aide at St. Anthony’s in Oakland. She also found time to play the organ for masses at St. Theresa’s Church and volunteered many hours to the Oakland Museum White Elephant Sale.

Delia loved to travel and began her adventures with family road trips in the 1950s to Canada, Mexico and to visit family back in Minnesota. Later with Frank, they took their children on many memorable summer vacations to national parks throughout the Northwest and to Mexico in the early 1970s. She joined her mother on trips throughout Europe and the Middle East in the 80s. Eventually, she and Frank would travel to more than forty countries on five continents. They rode elephants in India, camels in Egypt, buses in Brazil, and trains from China through Russia. She cherished her time volunteering at the orphanage in Calcutta and meeting Mother Teresa.

In 2000, they relocated to Oakmont in Santa Rosa, CA.  Dee became involved in the community through participation at Star of the Valley Catholic Church, volunteering at the library, making tactile Braille books with Oakmont Visual Aids Workshop, sewing quilts for Valley of the Moon Children’s Home, and visiting with residents at Sonoma Developmental Center. Additionally, she and her husband were generous benefactors of Caritas Village and Catholic Charities in Santa Rosa.

Delia Mansell is predeceased by her brother Patrick, her husband Frank of 64 years, and many friends and cousins.  She is survived by her nine children: Mary, Christine, Theresa, Laura, Jeanne, Tobias, Gerard, Timothy and Michael and their spouses; 18 grandchildren and their spouses, and 7 great grandchildren. Her love for family was deep, her faith in God unwavering.

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