Northern California Wildfires: ‘The Queen’ And Her ‘Peach’ Die Together

NAPA, CA — Friends during their grade school days, sweethearts later on and married for 75 years, “Peach” and “the Queen” died together Sunday as wildfires swept through the Napa region, where the couple have lived for 35 years. That’s the way they would have wanted it, their son said as he surveyed the charred remains of their home Tuesday. Their devotion to each other was legendary among those who knew Charles and Sara Rippey, ages 100 and 98, respectively.

“Peach,” a nickname Charles Rippey’s mother had given him as a youngster because he had chubby cheek, loved to buy “the Queen” jewelry, Mike Rippey, 71, said of his parents, who are among at least 21 people who have died in the wind-fueled fires that have eaten tens of thousands of acres in northern California’s wine country.

The Rippeys grew up together in Hartford, Wisconsin, and attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison together. World War II separated them after their marriage on March 20, 1942. He served in France, Italy and North Africa, but came home to her in one piece and began a professional career as an executive for the Firestone tire company. The couple moved to Napa after most of their five adult children moved to California so the family could remain close. (For more news on the wildfires and other news from Napa Valley Patch, sign up for real-time news alerts and free morning newsletters, or find your local California Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

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“We kids would always talk about what it would be like if one of them died before the other and the other was still alive,” Mike Rippey told The New York Times. “They just couldn’t be without each other. The fact that they went together is probably what they would have wanted.”

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All five of the Rippeys’ children gathered in Napa in March to celebrate their parents 75th wedding anniversary and celebrate their love story, one of deep devotion.

Little remained in the charred wreckage of the home to remind the children of their life together — coffee cups on a low window sill; a pair of metal chairs, side-by-side near a patio table; and a porcelain tea set of white and soft washes of blue, some pieces still intact.

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Living in the heart of California’s rich wine country, the Rippeys believed a good bottle of wine was the key to good health. “Whenever I went over there we’d polish off a bottle of champagne,” their son told The Times.

Mike Rippey, who was in London boarding a flight to California when he got a phone call alerting him his parents had died, broke through security barricades with his brother Chuck Tuesday and discovered their bodies. His father appeared to have been heading to the room of his mother when he was overcome by the smoke and flames. Sara Rippey had recently suffered a stroke and was confined to a wheelchair.

“My father certainly wouldn’t have left her,” Mike Rippey told the Associated Press.

He said he and his siblings have no plans to rebuild their parents’ home.

“Without them, it doesn’t mean a thing,” he told the AP. “It’s gone. They’re gone.”

In addition to their five children, the Rippeys are survived by 12 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, according to a Napa Valley Register report.

Authorities were expecting other older people to be among the dead, who, like the Rippeys, might not have been able to move fast enough to beat the flames.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Lead photo: In this undated photo provided by their son Michael Rippey shows Charles and Sara Rippey. Charles, 100, and Sara, 98, were unable to leave their Napa, Calif., home, and died when the Tubbs fire swept through. Their bodies were found Monday, Oct. 9, 2017. (Courtesy Michael Rippey via AP)