Cynthia Kay Bush
On Sunday, November 11, 2018, the 100th anniversary of the Armistice, Cynthia Kay Bush, a loving daughter, sister, wife, mother, and grandmother found everlasting peace at the age of 75 after a long illness.
Cynthia was born to Sgt. Jess Willard Jameson & Lauretta Mae Jameson on January 27, 1943 in Junction City, Kansas. She graduated from Santa Barbara High School with the class of 1961. While working at the counter of El Camino Pharmacy on Coast Village Road, she met Lloyd Bush. Their first date was a Limeliters concert under the stars at the Santa Barbara Bowl. While dining at Joe’s in July of 1963, Lloyd borrowed money from Harry Davis so he and Cindy could elope to Las Vegas, the only thing they didn’t do surrounded by their large community of friends.
Their years together in their house on Montecito Creek were happy ones, with many parties and perhaps one too many cocktails. Their New Years Eve bouillabaisse was legendary, and nothing short of miraculous given it was prepared in a kitchen that was smaller than a ship’s galley. Sunny days were spent at the Miramar, playing tennis and relaxing on the beach. Her favorite vacation was her yearly birthday trip to San Francisco, but she enjoyed their journeys to farther away places like France, Italy and China. She also could not imagine a life without Diet Coke or See’s candy.
Her husband as well as her mother preceded Cindy in death. These losses took a great toll on her. Her diagnosis with multiple sclerosis, a disease that felled her uncle, Emmett, was another blow as she entered the 21st century. But to all who knew her at her prime, there was simply no one who loved being a daughter, wife and mother more than she; and there was definitely no one better at it. Graceful to a fault, generous with no limits, she was, truly, and unmistakably, a lady.
In accordance with Dad’s stern warning to us in 1998, there is to be no “graveside nonsense” (of course, he used a more colorful word than “nonsense”). A celebration of life will happen in the spring. In lieu of flowers, we ask that donations be made to the National MS Society or the American Brain Foundation.