Former Ark reporter, staffer Lee Darby was prolific quilter, neighbor presence in Reed Heights

Lee Darby is seen with her husband, Bruce. Darby died March 6 at her Tiburon home. She was 80. (Family photo)

Lee Voye Darby, a 50-year Tiburon resident and former Ark reporter who later showcased her award-winning quilts, died at her home March 6 following complications from cancer. She was 80.

A freelancer for The Ark from the late 1970s to the 1990s, Darby covered education, including the Reed Union School District, and community affairs, from Hawthorne Terrace’s 30th anniversary in 1984 to early reporting on what would eventually become Farley Place, the senior living complex at 515 San Rafael Ave. in Belvedere. She also worked in the paper’s advertising department.

In addition to her reporting, Darby self-published a memoir in 2021, “Stars in Our Eyes,” chronicling her life and that of her sister, Sally Voye, who was shot to death while sitting in a car with fellow prison-reform activist Wilbert “Popeye” Jackson, the head of a prisoners’ union.

As an artist, Darby was a prolific quilter whose works were on display in the Belvedere-Tiburon Library and won several medals at the Marin County Fair, daughter Liz Darby said.

Darby was also an active resident in the Reed Heights-Tiburon Knolls neighborhood, serving on the board of the homeowners association and advocating for undergrounding most of the neighborhood’s utilities in 2001. Neighbor Margarita Perry, one of the undergrounding effort’s co-leaders, described Darby as “a true gem of a person” and added that neighbors like Darby are rare to come across nowadays.

“She was just one of a kind, and she was very well liked and just — we’ll miss her dearly,” Perry said.

Lee Voye was born Oct. 6, 1945, in Corpus Christi, Texas, to Elizabeth Patton “Patty” Will, a homemaker, and Joseph James “J.J.” Voye, a Marine Corps lieutenant and aviator who later became the chief financial officer at the Gordon H. Ball Co., a prominent construction firm that built most major freeways in California. She was the eldest of siblings Sally, Rob and Anne.

The family first lived in her father’s hometown of Klamath Falls, Oregon, in 1946 before moving to Menlo Park in 1948 and, eventually, Alamo in 1960.

She graduated from San Ramon Valley High School in Danville and attended the University of the Pacific in Stockton, where she was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and a staffer at its student newspaper, the Pacific Weekly, serving as its features editor. She received a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1967.

In 1972, she married Bruce Darby, and they first lived in San Francisco, where Lee Darby worked in the city’s Financial District. The couple moved to the Reed Heights-Tiburon Knolls neighborhood in 1976, where they would have two children together, Liz and Brendan, and where Darby would live until her death.

Bruce Darby said he and his wife enjoyed the newspaper’s annual Christmas parties, and “she had a lot of fun” working at the paper.

Former Ark reporter Deirdre McCrohan said she would often contact Darby to stay informed about Reed Heights-Tiburon Knolls neighborhood happenings.

McCrohan described Darby as an entertaining person with an acerbic wit that didn’t attack, adding that she was also stoic, helpful and intelligent.

Liz Darby described her mother as passionate about her neighborhood and said she often teased her mother about her steadfast desire to see tree ordinances enforced in town.

In 2013 and 2014, Darby led campaigns that called on the Richardson Bay Sanitary District to remove pine and eucalyptus trees along the district’s boundary line because of view impacts.

“I did that because I thought I could get their attention,” Darby said in 2013. “I wanted them to sit up and take notice. People from our neighborhood have complained about the trees forever, and they don’t get anywhere.”

Perry, a 30-year resident of the neighborhood, also said Darby always wanted to do things that benefited the neighborhood, including speaking at Design Review Board meetings or writing letters in support of neighbors.

“There’s so many things she would drop everything to do to help,” Perry said. “I mean, it’s crazy.”

Fellow neighbor Becky Pringle, who first met Darby in 1977, said the two would work on beautifying the Old Rail Trail bike path, whether by removing weeds or adding a rock border along its edge.

“She greeted every opportunity for new activities or ongoing friendships with a smile and an enthusiasm,” Pringle said. “She was a very cheerful, outgoing and happy individual.”

Tiburon resident Andrea Johnson knew Darby for more than 40 years; the two met when their eldest children attended Little Lambs Nursery School, a now-closed school at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Tiburon.

The two later bonded over quilting and were members of an informal quilting group that met regularly for many years, including making quilts for the nursery school. Johnson called Darby “a real purist” who still made quilts by hand.

“She had a very good sense of color and put interesting patterns and colors together,” Johnson said.

Tiburon resident Lee Darby, a former Ark staffer and prolific quilter, had her work displayed at the Belvedere-Tiburon Library and recognized at several Marin County Fairs, her daughter Liz Darby said. Darby died March 6 at age 80. (via Liz Darby)

McCrohan also complimented Darby’s quilting abilities.

“She is a stunningly gifted quilt artist whose use of color and patterns catapulted her from the area of the ordinary quilt into the world of art,” McCrohan said. “Her quilts were works of art.”

Darby’s memoir, “Stars in Our Eyes,” focuses on the 1975 killing of her sister and Jackson, leader of the United Prisoners Union — along with the speculation surrounding their deaths and the family fallout. Jackson, who a year earlier had served as a liaison between the Hearst family and the Symbionese Liberation Army during ransom negotiations in the Patty Hearst kidnapping, had been targeted by a rival gang, though rumors swirled that it was the Aryan Brotherhood or New World Liberation Front and that Sally Voye was an informant.

“It was unsettling to think these other murderers were out there. If we said anything, would they come after us?” Darby told the Marin Independent Journal in 2021. “It was a lot of grief, and we all just huddled together. Our family was deeply shocked. We would never have encouraged her to be involved in something like this.”

The book was decades in the making, but Liz Darby said her mother was spurred to finish it during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I think it was really important for her to change the narrative and show from the family’s perspective how that all occurred,” Liz Darby said, adding it was “a very proud moment for her to publish that book and … to finally have it out in the open. No more secrets.”

Liz Darby said her mother’s faith helped sustain her. She was a member and deacon at Westminster Presbyterian Church, helping with the capital campaign to remodel the church. Those contributions were returned when she fell ill, her daughter said.

“There were just so many people that brought meals and flowers and cards and prayer circle and, it’s like, that’s why you do it, you know?” Liz Darby said.

Community was paramount for Darby, her daughter and husband said. Bruce Darby added that getting involved in the neighborhood was a way to continue her legacy, as Liz Darby noted, “we’re all very insular now.”

“My mom was never afraid to go knock on the door and introduce herself and say, ‘Welcome to the neighborhood,’” Liz Darby said. “And I think there’s something lost in that that she would want to carry on.”

Lee Darby is survived by husband Bruce Darby of Tiburon; children Liz Darby of Medford, Oregon, and Brendan Darby of Orinda and their respective spouses; five grandchildren; and siblings Rob and Anne. She was preceded in death by her parents and sister Sally.

A public celebration of life will be held at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Tiburon, although Liz Darby said a date for the event has not been confirmed. Donations can be made in her memory to Westminster Presbyterian at wpctiburon.org/giving.

Reach Francisco Martinez at 415-944-4634.