Sylvia was born on November 22, 1937 to Elizabeth and Robert Malcolm Turner in Woodruff, South Carolina. She was raised in Woodruff and attended Limestone College, a private Christian University in Gaffney, South Carolina as an art major. On November 20, 1960, Sylvia married George Adam Zupp, Jr. of Laurens, South Carolina. Shortly after marrying, Sylvia relocated with George to Langley Field, Virginia when he accepted an engineering position with the federal government for two years before relocating to Houston, Texas where George accepted a position as one of the founding engineers with the formation of the Johnson Space Center (JSC) operated by NASA in 1962. JSC was formed to house the Space Task Group (STG) formed with Langley engineers to conduct the Apollo project initiated to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
In 1965, Sylvia and George designed and built a home together in Friendswood, Texas on what was then prairie. They inhabited the Friendswood home with their family for 55 years until George’s death. Their 57 years together in Friendswood established lifelong relationships with many staff of JSC as George, a PhD mechanical engineer, was a key team member of the Apollo, Skylab Space Station, Space Shuttle and the International Space Station projects. They were surrounded by neighbors and friends who settled in Friendswood and lived in the community for decades. They raised two children, George Adam Zupp III, born September 1968 and Lee Elizabeth Zupp born January 1973. After Adam and Lee went on to establish their own adult lives, Sylvia and George remained at 605 Fairdale Street for the remainder of his career and through retirement. Upon George’s passing at the age of 82 in February 2020, Sylvia relocated to Windsor, Colorado to live with her married daughter Lee Pierce, who provided a comfortable home and cared for her during declining health for the remaining three years of Sylvia’s life.
As a young married adult Sylvia was known for her empathetic understated personality and demonstrated respect for Southern cooking and manners. Yet Sylvia was also stern, strong-willed young woman who didn’t shrink from confrontation. Sylvia became a strong individualist. While George’s time was consumed pursuing Masters and Doctorate degrees in engineering, Sylvia gave him space by keeping up with the homestead and raising two children. She was handy and not afraid of hard work. When they built an oversized detached garage, Sylvia roofed it. As an adopted Westerner, Sylvia enjoyed collecting and shooting firearms. She was known to occasionally discharge a handgun on her property to dispense with unwanted wild critters as Friendswood evolved from prairie to suburb. Although a quiet personality, Sylvia enjoyed the thrill of riding motorcycles and driving sportscars. Some of her favorite stories recalled driving her white Triumph TR4 convertible and street racing her compact British racing green, eight-cylinder, 1967 Sunbeam Tiger blowing away bigger late 60’s muscle cars accelerating away when traffic lights turned green.
Before raising a family, Sylvia was employed as a draftsman/designer making detailed technical drawings and designing kitchens. Sylvia satiated her creative passion for art as a water color painter and designer of silver jewelry. Sylvia’s passion for Southwestern art led to a lifelong affinity for the artist Georgia O’Keeffe. Sylvia collected dozens of books about O’Keeffe’s art and life, even making a pilgrimage to the artist’s studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico where O’Keeffe spent the last years of her life. Modeling her life after O’Keeffe, Sylvia loved Western art, subscribed to numerous Western themed magazines, and collected many pieces of Native American designed silver jewelry. While George taught thermodynamics classes at Texas A&M University as an in-residence professor on loan from NASA, Sylvia designed the home they built on 56 acres of rural property in Brenham, Texas 100 miles northwest of Friendswood. Sylvia enjoyed the rural setting, driving a tractor, painting, canoeing and fishing in two stocked ponds, and taking walks with her Pembroke Welsh Corgi named Zelda. After returning to Houston and NASA, Sylvia and George kept the Brenham property as a weekend getaway for the remainder of their lives. Sylvia spent the last years of her life living on the front range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, her favorite pastime driving through the mountains enjoying the rugged scenery with her daughter Lee.
Sylvia is survived by her sister Nancy Knighton and her children/grandchildren, her own children Adam and Lee, grandson Cole, son-in-law Ron. There will be no funeral ceremony as Sylvia is to be cremated and most of her remaining family and friends live far away. At a time to be determined in the future, Adam and Lee will return to the ranch in Brenham to spread Sylvia’s and George’s ashes as a final resting place.
In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the Alzheimer’s Association www.act.alz.org.
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