Ava Dean(Chambers)(Tidwell) McVitty

Ava Dean (Chambers) (Tidwell) McVitty passed on December 28, 2024, in a care facility in Petaluma, California. Born May 6, 1932, in Sims, Arkansas and a seventy-plus years resident of Gualala, California she was 92 years old. 

She is survived by a loving and connected family: her husband Bill, son Jerry (Jerilyn), Daughter Mary Ann (Bob); grandchildren Colleen, Andrew (Lauren), Chris, John, Robert; great-grandchildren Hudson and Nash; sisters-in-law Jone Chambers and Marsha Chambers; cousins Helen and Gerald, Willa Dean; and numerous nieces and nephews. 

She was predeceased by her parents Waymon and Janie; siblings Jean, Anniece, Waylon, and Johnny; her first husband Clarence Tidwell; and numerous cousins.

 Born and raised in Sims, Arkansas, she married Clarence Tidwell in 1949, and they migrated to Northern California where they began a successful logging operation, eventually setting in the town of Gualala. In 1961 Clarence was killed in a log truck accident. Widowed at 28 years old, with two young children, Ava eventually disposed of their business but continued to work in the logging and real estate business, doing bookkeeping and secretarial work. 

In 1968, she met William McVitty, who was a member of the Air Force stationed near where she lived. They married on February 5, 1970, and were nearing fifty-five years of marriage when she passed. 

She and Bill found great joy in travel. They took trips to Ireland, Germany, Austria, and the Caribbean; their main travel focus, and efforts were in seeing the United States, taking numerous driving trips to sights, family, and friends a significant majority of the lower 48 states. 

While she spent the vast majority of her adult life as a California resident, she always had an affinity, focus, and affection for Arkansas. Whether it was through story-telling, continual contact with her extended family there, numerous trips every year for many decades to her ancestral family farm or the farm she and Bill purchased here, or her delicious Southern-influenced meals, Arkansas was an influence throughout her long life.  

She will be laid to rest at Rocky Cemetery in Sims, AR, Thursday, January 9, 2025, at 11am. Arrangements are under the direction of Thornton Funeral Home in Mount Ida, AR. Guest register at www.thorntonfh.com.