Eunice C. Combs

Eunice Combs, age 94, a resident of Temecula, California for 23 years, passed away peacefully on December 21, 2024, surrounded by loved ones.

Born Eunice Clare Knauf in Binghamton, New York, she was raised on a small Owego, NY farm. Throughout her life she would recall those happy childhood years on that cherished family homestead overlooking the Susquehanna River. A brilliant student, “Eunie,” as she was affectionately known, graduated high school as salutatorian, and went on to attend Harpur College (now part of Binghamton University, SUNY) on an academic scholarship. She majored in Geology, but Eunie’s interests went beyond science; she was a renaissance woman who loved art and literature, athletics, studied the baritone horn and participated as a cheerleader for Harpur. She graduated number one in her class. It was at Harpur College where she met and married Walter F. Combs, Sr.. Together they would have nine children; the first two in New York, the next three in Chicago, and the last four in California where they moved to in 1959.

For decades, Eunice attended the First Advent Christian Church of Tustin, California. She devotedly brought up her children in this Church and because of her faithfulness, all of her children were “trained up in the way they should go.” The legacy of faith which began with her parents before her has extended generations because of that obedience.

Her later interests included classical music, opera, and the arts in general. All who knew Eunice experienced her zeal for sports. But from the time she could read, books were her constant companion, and reading was her passion. Though humbly not impressed with her own achievements, she amazed others, right to the very end, with her command of literature and with the depth of her knowledge of so many topics.

Perhaps more than anything, Eunice will be remembered as a caring, self-sacrificing mother and grandmother. Her family meant everything. Now, in the presence of her Lord, she is united with family gone before her; “Ma” (Halina Daisy Knauf), “Pa” (Frederick Charles Knauf), and her sister Helen Knauf Taylor. But the best reunion, undoubtedly, is with her son, Kent Herman Combs, who the Lord took home to Himself in 1973 at the age of thirteen. What joy there is in Glory Land!

Eunice is survived by her sister Shirley Knauf and brother Charles Knauf, and by her eight remaining children: Curtiss, Kristen, Kevan, Kelly, Walter, Kirby, Katrina, and Kory. She also leaves behind sixteen grandchildren and twenty great-grandchildren.

A family “Celebration of Life” event is scheduled for February 15th , 2025.

Funeral arrangements were entrusted to England Family Mortuary, Inc.