Sandra Kathleen Macdiarmid

Sandy MacDiarmid was born Sandra Kathleen Pitts on March 17, 1945 to Jessie “Clyde” Pitts and Marie Olivia Pitts nee Kelley in Selma, California. After her parents’ divorce in 1949 Sandy would spend her summers and holidays out on her father’s ranch in Kerman, California. She would have many adventures there with her sisters Carolyn, Deborah and Deanna including the summer they decided to dig themselves a swimming pool. What they created was a giant mud bowl. This did not stop them from swimming in it anyways and by all accounts it took many hours to get all of the mud off of them and all of the sticks out of their hair.

The rest of the year Sandy lived with her mother and her beloved step father Darrell Lawson in Merced, California. She was an excellent student and participated in many of her schools arts programs to include choir, plays and being an assistant editor for her school paper. One of her favorite memories from school was that her principle changed schools when she did from elementary to junior high and then to high school. She was very fond of him and it made her secretly very happy that he was always there at her school.

Sandy graduated in 1963 from Berkley High School. She attended college classes at Heald although she secretly wanted to attend San Francisco State University. During this time she worked at the Berkley Library where she met many famous writers including Beverly Cleary and Maurice Sendak. Sandy was briefly married during this time to a young sailor from Texas named Donald Bartlett. Alas it was not meant to be and after a short time they parted ways. Much like her first marriage her time in college was also brief. They were the beginning of an education in experience that was common at that time and in that part of the country.

Sandy had discovered what a free spirit she could be and these adventures led her to a man named Ivan MacDiarmid. Although she did not know it at the time he was the man she was meant to be with. Together they raised seven children Karl, Ian, Alexis, Deidre, Lee, Neil and Stuart. It wasn’t always easy and it wasn’t always fun but she loved being a mother and a wife and she wouldn’t have traded it for all the tea in China. Together they traveled around the western United States living in Nevada, California, Montana and finally landed in Port Orchard, Washington in 1977.

Children brought the most joy to her life which is a good thing because her own produced like rabbits. Sandy piled up 17 grandchildren: Leah, Frank, Becky, Rachel, Sara, Jon, Taylor, Jacob, Kathy, Joe, Abby, Austin, Ally, Owen, Carter, Dean and Jess followed by 6 great grandchildren: Jayden, Addy, Sam, Dakota, Michael and Kadee. She had to keep many notes and an entire planner to keep up on birthdays, phone numbers and addresses.

In 1981, with the prospect of having her last child starting school, Sandy put in an application with the South Kitsap School District and started that following year. She worked at Burley Glenwood where she started as an assistant librarian. She would bring her guitar or accordion and play old folk songs for the kids during library time. As her time with the school went on she transitioned to a playground teacher, a lunchroom lady and finally into the front office where she managed the schools consumables and administered first aid to all of the kids with scrapped knees and itchy heads. One of her favorite jokes on her own children was to sift through their hair with an overly concerned look on her face and try to make them believe they had head lice. It never got old. Sandy’s career took her to the district’s home school program at the Explorer Academy. She was finally running her own office and what was the bigger bonus, she got to meet and know more kids. She retired from the district in January of 2015 with 31 years of service.

Sandy was a funny, smart, feisty, loyal person that cannot be adequately described in a few short paragraphs. She had a full life that touched so many others in such a positive way. There are many more stories about this sweet lady that we, her family and friends, can only guess at. If you have the time to write them down here, we would love to hear them. Thank you.