Phebe Briggs McClatchy Conley was truly a Renaissance woman. She was a descendant of Sacramento Valley pioneers (the Rideout and Briggs families) and was known for her wit, independence, and political acumen. When she died at the age of 99 several people were quoted for an article in the Sacramento Bee: "She always had her own opinions and didn't hesitate to let you know what they were"....."She was a classy lady"...."She was amazingly modern; people didn't think of her as old - ever." Phebe was the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Ellery Briggs, her father a noted ophthalmologist. She attended Vassar as had her mother Grace Rideout Briggs before her; Phebe graduated magna cum laude in 1916. While at Vassar she was awarded the Carnegie Silver Medal for saving the lives of three classmates who almost drowned on an ice-covered lake. After graduating Vassar, she did some graduate work at San Francisco Polyclinic. She met and married Carlos K. McClathy in 1918, just prior to his shipping overseas during World War I. Never one to sit around, Phebe went to Washington, D.C. where she worked for the War Department during her husband's absence during the War. Upon his safe return, they moved to Sacramento where her husband worked for his father, the owner of the Sacramento Bee, the well-known local Sacramento paper that had been in the McClatchy family almost from its inception during the wild and wooly days of early Sacramento history. Her husband Carlos McClatchy died in 1933. In the following decades, Phebe raised her children, enrolled in a Teacher Training program at Fresno State College, hiked and camped (spending most summers at Lake Tahoe well into her 90's), and involved herself in many civic and cultural affairs. She was known to be an accomplished horse woman and had keen interests in music and painting. She married again, at the age of 66 in 1958, this time to Judge Philip Conley, a judge on the Superior Court. Phebe passed away 6 months short of her 100th birthday at St. Agnes Hospital in Fresno. In her memory, a scholarship fund was established at Fresno State University. A life well-lived!