Grace C. Magee

Grace passed away peacefully at her home in San Diego surrounded by family and her cat. Grace was born in Walla Walla, Washington, the daughter of Maxine Lucille Gottleib and Ellis Leroy (Carl) Carlisle. She was 15 months younger than her cherished older brother, Dale Louis. Along with younger brother, Buddy, the boys affectionately nicknamed their sister “Honey,” as she will forever be known by her family. Grace’s musical talents developed at an early age. As young children, Grace and Dale performed at local events and gatherings as a brother-sister singing and dancing duo. Grace was an accomplished piano player and vocalist and majored in music at Whitman College. She had a beautiful contralto voice, which was unique in musical theater and ideal for operatic roles. Grace moved to San Diego in the 1960s where she taught music and voice, performed in local events, and joined the chorus of the San Diego opera. Grace worked as an administrative assistant for the San Diego Chargers, and through this connection she met her lifelong love, Jerry Magee, a sports journalist for the San Diego Union Tribune. Grace and Jerry were married in 1972. Grace was a lover of animals and especially cats. She owned and cared for many cat friends over the years; each decade or two was marked by new cat family members such as Ricky Raw, Kramer, Tika, Cleo and Pumpkin Spice. As a volunteer with the San Diego Zoo, Grace was trained to provide

physical therapy for a lion-tailed macaque with cerebral palsy. Grace always brought visiting family and friends to enjoy the world-famous zoo and Wild Animal Park and learn about the zoo’s preservation work. Grace later worked at the Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species (CRES) beginning in 1989. She worked on species survival projects related to the Przewalski’s horse and the giant panda, collecting data from institutions and organizing national and international transfers and exchanges of animals. She coordinated CRES conferences for the San Diego Zoo’s 75th anniversary celebration in 1991. Grace excelled at games and puzzles; she applied her talent in helping to karyotype hundreds of species of mammal and bird cell lines that are part of the Frozen Zoo. Grace moved to Merrill Gardens at Bankers Hill in 2019 where she comfortably lived the last year of her life and was well cared for and loved. Grace is survived by her family in the Pacific Northwest, including her dear brother Ellis (Buddy) and his wife Joy, and her beloved nieces and nephews Dana, Todd, Jason, Ryan and Robert Carlisle, and their spouses and children.