TOURNEY

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Monday, December 21, 2009 at 04:57:55 :

The Marian Journal
February 6, 1948
Page 1

Rupert Tourney Dies in Fairfax

Funeral services will be held today for Rupert Kendall Tourney, the grand old man of Marin journalism, who died at his home at 17 Redwood Road, Fairfax, on Wednesday evening.

Mr. Tourney’s death, although not unexpected because he had been ill for some time and was stricken with cancer last Summer, was nevertheless a great shock to the people of Fairfax, among whom he numbered so many friends as to embrace virtually the entire community, and to the people of Marin generally.

For 20 years he had lived in the little house perched on the hill of Fairfax and looked down upon a community he had come to love and that had come to love him. For many of those years he wrote for The San Anselmo Herald and its successor The Marin Herald - and he wrote not only the social notes, the births and deaths, the happenings of city council sessions and other “straight” news, but a column under the title, “The Lights Are On” in which he told of his ramblings among adults and children and his observations on animals and plants and all of the homely little things that made life in Marin a joy for him. Through his column he had brought moments of joy and gladness to many persons – in and out of Fairfax.

When Rupert Tourney was stricken last Summer he had so many friends calling upon him and helping him that, in sheer desperation at his inability to do anything but stay on the receiving end of kindness, he quietly moved out to stay for a few weeks with friends on an ark on the Sausalito waterfront. And when he stopped writing his column, The Herald office was besieged with telephone calls and letters asking when he might resume.

Last Christmas the people of Fairfax, from school children to persons in political life who at times had objected to his unfailingly accurate reporting of events in public life, all joined to make him a surprise Christmas basket. Nearly everyone in Fairfax contributed in a spontaneous unorganized expression of gratitude and sympathy to a stricken friend.

Mr. Tourney is survived by a sister, Miss Elizabeth Tourney, and a brother, Frank B. Tourney, both of Southern California. He was born in San Francisco 60 years ago.

Services will be held at 3 o’clock this afternoon at Keaton’s Mortuary in San Rafael. Inurnment will be in Woodlawn Cemetery at Colma.