Shelby Anne (Tree) Biggs, 86, died June 6 in Roseville, CA of Alzheimer’s disease.
She is survived by daughters Marian Young of Elk Grove; Katherine Knight of Houston; Brooke Shelby Biggs of San Francisco, and sisters Allison Teixeira and Arden Woolf. She leaves four grandchildren: Shelby, Amanda, Kaitlin, and Erik; great-granddaughter Avery; and many nieces, nephews, friends, and fans.
Shelby was born in 1935 to Marian (Winans) and Warren Horace Tree in San Jose. She studied journalism at San Jose State College & met Clark Biggs there in 1956. They wed in 1958 and moved to Sacramento where Clark worked at the Bee and Shelby became the first female city editor of a daily newspaper (The Roseville Press-Tribune) in NorCal. The family would move to SF & Marin County, eventually settling back in Carmichael in 1979.
Many who knew her describe her as “one classy lady.” She had impeccable manners and was a first-rate hostess who delighted in welcoming friends, family, and newcomers into her home.
She loved the outdoors and was especially enamored with the redwoods. Her green thumb was evidenced by the riot of color in her garden year-round.
Shelby read voraciously for most of her life. A lifelong student of modern art, she never saw a museum she didn’t want to spend a day in.
A lifelong Democrat, she was guided by a highly attuned moral compass and a profound sense of compassion and justice.
She twice survived breast cancer twice and volunteered for the American Cancer Society, counseling women undergoing treatment for the disease.
She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2003 and lived at Elim Care in Roseville for over a decade, where her caretakers became beloved extended family.
She was predeceased by Clark, her husband of 58 years, in 2017.