Eileen "Gypsy" Mary Howard

Eileen Mary Howard (or as many knew her, Gypsy) was born in Los Angeles, California on August 17, 1951. She was immediately adopted by Martin and Kathleen Kenneally who gave her the beachside childhood that would forever fuel her love of the water, sun, and open air.

A strong willed child with a dark head of curls and bright green eyes, she developed into a feisty woman with a strong sense of purpose. She graduated high school in 1969 and with a knapsack and her cat, she hitched a ride on a strangers motorcycle bound for San Francisco. She spent the better part of a year sleeping on couches and flophouses around Haight- Ashbury, and embodying all that was the free love, hippie movement. She went on to attend the University of San Diego where she honed her gifts of writing and poetry. It was while in San Diego that she discovered her love of auto racing and became the first female flagger licensed in the state of California. She always blazed her own path.

She met her first husband, Edward Sutherland, at Riverside International Raceway in 1972. A Navy Chief Petty Officer 20 years her senior with jet black hair and a swoon worthy grin, they married on May 11, 1973. He retired soon after and they took off in a camper with their collie puppy Mayday to traverse the continent for several months, ultimately landing in Terre Haute, Indiana. She welcomed her first and only child, Seana, on May 04, 1976 and it was love at first sight. As life would have it, Gypsy and Ed split in 1978 and she took Seana to live in Chicago where she had a job working for CBS Records. While she loved the city, the southern California beaches beckoned to her... so in 1982 she moved back to state she loved to raise her daughter.

She would go on to marry and divorce two more times before deciding that the single life was more her style. She took a job in the cosmetics packaging industry, working as a secretary for Kolmar Labs, before quickly being promoted to the sales department. Over the years she parlayed her spunk, work ethic, and ability to sell ice to Eskimos, to become the West Coast Sales Manager for Diversapack in Chino, California. She travelled all over the world with, and to visit, her daughter and developed a serious case of wanderlust. In the Fall of 2014 she decided to try her hand at retirement, and with her typical non-traditional flare, sold everything and moved to Costa Rica. She came back to the States often...for Seana’s wedding on Kauai and the birth of both of her granddaughters, but Costa Rica just felt like home. Eventually family trumped the island life and she moved to Las Vegas to be closer to her daughter and granddaughters in 2017. If you know her, you know she hated the desert, so this was a huge statement on her love for family! In 2019 a home DNA test connected her to a brother and sister and an entire family history she never knew existed. That summer she and Seana traveled to Modesto, California to meet her newfound siblings. Sadly her time left did not allow her to visit again, but having the opportunity to meet the people who share her blood and look just like her was a joy she never dreamed she would experience.

A fierce lover of animals, she never had a shortage of rescue dogs in her home, ensuring even those that were otherwise “unadoptable” had the best final years of life. She also loved her horses and the horse community where she eventually settled in Norco, California. Although she was a multi-cancer survivor (breast, skin, lung, and brain), she refused to be slowed nor defined by that fact. To her it was a no brainer that you just kept persevering, kept dancing, kept smiling, and kept laughing. She lived every day larger than life and completely oblivious to the impact she made on every single life she touched.

The world dimmed a bit on Sunday, April 11, 2021, but she will live on in every unbridled laugh, every dance in the rain, and every wave that laps the shore.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.palmcheyenne.com for the HOWARD family.