Sunshine and Sass

August 12, 1971 - May 20, 2012

Mindy Alice Stover

August 12, 1971 - May 20, 2012
Mindy Alice Stover was born on August 12th, the day of the Perseid Meteor Shower. With the flare that was characteristic of her personality and life, she made her final exit with a little smile on her face on the day of the most recent solar eclipse, May 20th, 2012. At age 40, Mindy passed away at the home of her parents, in Sacramento, California, after a nearly two-year battle with brain cancer. She is now truly over the rainbow. Mindy, known affectionately by many of her friends as Minky, was born in Modesto, California, to parents Richard and Jan Stover. She grew up in Sacramento, California, with her parents, three siblings, and a household full of family cats and dogs. Mindy attended Sacramento High School, Sacramento City College, and, as she liked to say, the school of hard knocks. At Sac High, she was heavily involved

with the vocal performing group Star Makers, as well as the Sacramento High School Marching Band, for which she played clarinet and was Drum Major during her senior year. From the time she was young, Mindys dream was a career in theater, and through her talent, hard work and tenacity, she was able to live that dream earning her living as an official, card-carrying professional actor in theater. She performed locally (appearing regularly on the Music Circus & B Street Theatre stages in Sacramento, the Davis Musical Theatre, the Ensemble Theatre Company in Santa Barbara, and the Sierra Repertory Theatre in Sonora) and in many other cities across the country and around the world, including New York, Los Angeles, and three years of touring Central Europe (Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden) in the role of Columbia in the West End stage production of The Rocky Horror Show.

Her achievements included, as she said in her own words, a sturdy set of extremely worn luggage; a heavily stamped passport; an amazing resume; a few lifetimes worth of photos, memories, and adventures; a storage unit full of apartment stuff still waiting to be used; and the thrill and pride of knowing that I am actually doing what I always wanted/ dreamed of doing. She was quick to boast that she enjoyed continually living the life that Peter Pan would be proud of literally getting paid to play for my career, having grand adventures in doing so, and essentially never growing up.

This is Mindys very first performance as Lady Godiva while watering the flowers in the front yard. This was the first indication that Mindy might do things a little differently and in her own special way.

Some of Mindys favorite childhood memories were the annual summer trips with her siblings to visit her Grandma Dorothy in Arizona. Scottsdale was a place near and dear to her heart.

Mindy caught the acting bug while she was still in elementary school. In one of these early productions, a simple misspelling on a show program lead to her nickname, Minky.

In her senior year of high school in 1989, Mindy was the Drum Major for the Sacramento High School Marching Band. She won many awards for her drama and flair as a Drum Major and had her first opportunity to travel to New York City. Upon return she declared, Im going to live there!

A smile is like a flashbulb from your heart to help your soul take the picture for your memories all of them
Mindy Stover

Mindy had a life-long love for all things Wizard of Oz. One of her proudest achievements was playing Dorothy in the 1995 Music Circus production of the Wizard of Oz. She felt like she was born to play this part. Her dog, Total Calamity, also had a starring role in the the production as Toto.

[Mindy} has the innate ability to make someone richer by just smiling at them; a sort of King Midas to hearts and souls.
Mindy, 2000

Count stars. Listen to the wind. Laugh. Play. Dream.

one of Mindys favorite quotations

Make your soul happy and proud for then it shall truly sing.
Mindy, 2007

I believe in the power of laughter. I believe that friends are family you choose, and theres nothing more valuable than a good friend.
Mindy, 2009