Nancy Marie Harris

The early morning of May 25th, 2026 seemed to stand still with the passing of our dearly loved Mother, Sister, Aunt, Cousin, Grandmother and Great-Grandmother, Nancy Marie Harris, 87, of San Juan Capistrano. It’s hard to choose the right words to tell the story of her well-lived life, full of family, friends, love, and generosity, and most importantly, her lifelong marriage to devoted husband, Dan Harris, for sixty-eight years.

For our dad, Dan, it was love at first sight when he saw Nancy in a class at Glendale College. He lights up every time he tells the story of how he went to the Administration Office to sneak her phone number. And how one day after that, she drove into the gas station where he worked and he dropped everything, including his lunch, to be the one to fill her tank and to ask her out. From that day forward, Nancy and Dan have been inseparable. Before her passing, you never saw one without the other. They built a business together in publishing for over thirty years and always shared their successes with family and friends with employment, lunches and dinners at fancy restaurants, and adventures that created memories that will last lifetimes.

Lifelong wasn’t just her marriage, it was also Nancy’s loyalty and devotion to family, friends and neighbors. From sharing her famous homemade toffee and candies with a list of people that grew each year at Christmas, to planning and cooking food and arranging flowers for holidays, celebrations or any occasion, to volunteering at the San Clemente Animal Shelter, she loved through caring and giving. She also believed that anything can be made better with a dollop of whipped cream. She was the glue that held our family together as the Matriarch after her mother, and her mother’s mother before that. She not only loved her family, but also anyone they loved.

Nancy was a seventh generation Californian, and a descendant of Don Luis Argüello, first native Californian to become Governor of the state. In 1807, while acting commandante of the Presidio of San Francisco, Don Luis was confronted with the first threat of Russian penetration into the United States. This story, and the romance between Don Luis’ sister María Concepción Argüello and Nicolai Rezanov, Imperial Russian chamberlain, furnish the background for the poetry of Bret Harte, the fiction of Gertrude Atherton and the drama of John Steven McGroarty in his play “La Golondrina.” María Concepción later became the first native Catholic Nun of California and her brother, Father Jose Ygnacio Maximo Argüello, was the first native Catholic Priest of California. Her ancestors were holders of vast land grants from the Spanish Crown which included the counties of San Mateo, Alameda and Contra Costa, and it was through the efforts of her forebears that many Glendale streets were given Spanish names by early subdividers.

Nancy is survived by her loving husband Ronald Daniel (Dan) Harris Jr; her three children, Steve Harris (wife Regina), Monica Andersen, and Elizabeth Vervynck (husband Scott); her brothers Thomas (wife Susan), James, Robert and Martin Paine (wife Mickey); her 12 grandchildren, Lindsay Sawyer (husband Steven), Ginger Quigley, Jace McKinney, Sean Harris, Colby McKinney, Lauren Stagner (husband Douglas), Tyler McKinney (wife Jovanah), Natalie Harris, Kirsten Harris, Sebastian Andersen, Christof Andersen and Tehya Andersen; her 11 great-grandchildren Lukas Daly, Lilly Daly, Alexander Dossi, Kassidy Dossi, Nathan Dossi, David Quigley, Luke McKinney, Maxx McKinney, Bennett Stagner, Brooklyn Baker, and Maddison Johnson; and her best friends from high school, Sue Cochran and Joan Reed. She is preceded in death by her parents Dauphin and Elizabeth Paine, her brothers John and Richard Paine, and her dear aunts Nadine and Dorothy Fitzsimmons and Mary Ann Poirer, and uncles Bob and Edward Fitzsimmons. She was a graduate of both Holy Family High School and Glendale College.

A Catholic funeral mass will be held at a later date to be announced at the Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation in her name to the Pet Project Foundation, rescue partner of the San Clemente/Dana Point Animal Shelter, where Nancy volunteered every Monday for over 17 years >> https://petprojectfoundation.org/

Nancy’s aunt Nadine shared this poem … Standing upon the seashore, she is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other. Then, someone at my side says, “There, she is gone.” Gone where? Gone from my sight. That is all. And, just at the moment when someone says, “There she is gone,” there are many other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, “Here she comes!”