MISTI WHITELEY

 Misti Whiteley was born Melissa Martha McCabe in October 1942 at Lawrence, Mass.

Her mother, Alpha Bracket McCabe, nee Guyer, died in the hospital 6 days later. Misti was brought home by her mother’s best friend Emily Holt, a nurse, who later married  Misti’s father, James Robert McCabe.

  Misti grew up in several cities; Hanover, New Hampshire, Andover, Massachusetts., Pinehurst, North Carolina, and Richmond, Virginia. Her family moved to Burlingame, California for her senior year at Mills High. She later lived in San Rafael, Novato, Petaluma, Palo Alto, Santa Clara, Scotts Valley and the Watsonville area.

 Misti’s daughter, Holly Hunt was born in 1966, her son Robert (Bob) Hunt in 1969, and her son Thomas (Tom) Schneider in 1972.

 Misti & John were avid square dancers and they met at a Saturday night hoedown in 1989. They were active members of the Gilroy Gliders until moving to Rio Vista in 1997.

 John and Misti were married on 7/7/90 at 7 p.m., as Misti loved to recall, and lived in Cupertino.

 In 1997 Misti and John moved to their “retirement” home in Rio Vista in 1997, where John was able to telecommute from his job in Redwood City until retiring in 2001. Misti enjoyed home schooling her granddaughter Alyssa in preschool.

 Misti grew up loving horseback riding and had an active stud farm with her champion jumper appaloosa stallion in Novato. 

 Misti was a keen sports car owner and excellent driver who enjoyed fun runs on twisty roads and competing in autocrosses and hill climbs. She studied architecture at Healds College in San Francisco and was interested in interior design. She loved to decorate every room in her house at Christmas. Her favorite TV channel was HGTV.

 Other activities she enjoyed were collecting Teddy bears and camping. She worked in electronics manufacturing, real estate, as a Mary Kay beauty consultant, and doing flower arrangements and bouquets for weddings, including those for all her and John’s children. The last several years Misti enjoyed leading her church’s poll worker team for the elections.

 During her 20-year marriage to John, Misti was active in many organizations.

 First was always her church, Berean Bible Fellowship in Atascadero since moving to Paso Robles. She had invited Jesus into her heart in Watsonville.

 From 1991 to 2001 she was active in the Bay Area Miata Association (BAMA), serving 2 years as president, setting up monthly socials around the San Francisco Bay area and helping organize two major weekend events, Golden Gate Getaway ’96 and ’98.

 Misti and John moved to Paso Robles in 2002 to be near her son Bob, his wife Christi and their son Justin, A second reason was for Misti to be able to have a horse again. She loved appaloosa horses, especially Fancy and Frosty. Misti loved her dogs, especially poodles of all sizes. Her constant companion and lap dog these last years was Missy.

 Misti loved riding in parades with the Atascadero Horsemen’s Club. She also worked with the Horse Emergency Evacuation Team (HEET) where she was secretary 2 years and president 1 year.

 Misti joined the Back Country Horsemen of California (BCHC), Los Padres Unit and was secretary for several years. She loved their Fall Camp-N-Ride weekend near Lake Cachuma, which she, John and granddaughter Alyssa attended many times.

Misti joined the Paso Robles Red Hats ladies group and really enjoyed wearing her red and purple outfits to the luncheons. John got to lead her in dressed as a cat with whiskers and a tail one Halloween.

In 1994 Misti arranged a surprise 60^th birthday Luau for John. She secretly took hula lessons for a month and danced the hula in public for the first time to the tune Hanalei Moon at the Luau. Later while in Hawaii she watched a lady, Adele, dancing a Christian hula. She asked Adele to teach her and after one lesson Adele said you’re ready, you can do it on your own now! She loved dancing the hula to many Christian songs at church, at Senior Retreats at Mt. Hermon, and at the Red Hats. It was part of her ministry.

Misti Whiteley, 67, of Paso Robles passed away at 3 a.m. Sunday, May 2, 2010, at home in her sleep. She had suffered from Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma since 2001, and on April 26, 2010 was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia. She was under the kind care of Central Coast Hospice who relieved her pain. During that week she was visited by many friends and all her children. Although she could no longer converse, she acknowledged she could hear everyone and we held the phone to her ear so she could hear the loving words and prayers from far away friends and her dear cousin Janet Harris (Don).

Misti is survived by her daughter Holly Hunt, son Bob Hunt (Christi), and son Tom Schneider (Mariah), granddaughter Emily Hunt-Parsons, grandson Justin Hunt, and granddaughter Alyssa Schneider, as well as John’s son Peter Whiteley, daughter Allison Whiteley (Bill), son Mark Whiteley (Jen), granddaughter Mallory Epping and granddaughter Ginger Whiteley.