Obituary of Delores Kay Chambers

Delores Kay Chambers, 76, of Tucson, Arizona was called to a better place on January 31, 2023, due to complications of Covid.

Kay was born in Jacksonville, Illinois on April 30, 1946, to Jesse Wayne and Margarette Chambers. She had a love and talent for music, took up the cello and performed with a string quartet at Jacksonville High.

Kay then attended Illinois State University where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. After teaching English in the Chicago suburbs for a short time, she applied for admission to Boston University for graduate work, but her application was rejected. She was surprised but undaunted and said to herself, “This isn’t right; they just don’t understand. I’m going to explain it to them.” She then got in her car, drove 1,000 miles to Boston, went to the Boston University Admissions Office and asked to speak to an admissions officer. She must have been very persuasive because she was admitted and began her graduate work in educational psychology.

A couple of years later Kay received her Master’s Degree in Ed Psych and began her career as a guidance counselor at Concord-Carlisle High School, one of the finest high schools in Massachusetts. Thus began a 32-year career as mentor and counselor to young people, including 3 years as Chair of the Concord-Carlisle Guidance Department. Kay possessed a rare insight into and understanding of adolescent behavior – guiding young people was her true calling, the work she was born to do – and she did it superbly and with real dedication. For that she was widely admired and after her retirement in 2005, her family and friends created an endowed scholarship in her name. Every year a worthy student at CCHS is selected to receive a cash award from the Kay Chambers Scholarship Fund to help manage his or her college expenses.

Kay met her life partner and future husband, Alan Silverman, completely by chance at the Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston in 1984. They lived together in the Boston suburbs until 2013. Kay had fallen in love with Boston and New England – its natural beauty, history, traditions, cosmopolitan atmosphere and many concert halls, theaters, and other arts venues. She was a voracious reader, belonged to at least two book clubs at any given time and had a library of thousands of books. She loved the outdoors as well, and she and Alan enjoyed spending time at their lakefront cabin in the Maine woods, cruising the lake in a small boat and inviting friends to come and visit. She took up skiing and snowshoeing and often spent long winter weekends in charming little inns in Vermont and New Hampshire.

In 2013 the couple moved to Tucson, Arizona, Alan’s hometown. Kay made many friends in the neighborhood and enjoyed socializing, gardening, the performing arts, and foreign travel. She visited England, Scotland, France, Italy, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Singapore among other places. Kay’s favorite form of entertainment was live theater, and when in London she took full advantage of the chance to attend at least one stage play a day and sometimes two.

Around 2017 Kay was tragically diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, a family curse, but continued to live at home until May 2019, when she suffered a crisis and was forced to move to a memory care facility near their home. To make Kay feel as secure and loved as possible, Alan proposed marriage. Their lifetime commitment was formalized in June 2019 and they lived the last 3 ½ years of Kay’s life as man and wife.

Before and after the Covid lockdown, Kay and Alan spent time together nearly every day and were fortunate to maintain a strong, loving and caring relationship until the very end, when the twin plagues of Alzheimer’s and Covid finally took her life.

Kay is survived by her devoted husband; her sister Janet Bland (Jeff); her two nieces, Sabrina Bland Wilson (Tina) and Sadie Bland Furman (James); her nephew William Shane Bland (Courtney); six grandnieces and nephews; and her 100 year old aunt, Joyce Murray. Kay’s children are the many hundreds of students she guided for 32 years with skill, wisdom, and affection, helping them prepare for adult life.