Elizabeth Mary O'Neill

Sacramento lost a beautiful, treasured soul far too soon. Elizabeth Mary O’Neill was born at Mercy General Hospital in 1965 and that is where she drew her very last breath on August 10, 2020. She was the baby of the four children of Robert and Mariquita O’Neill. All four of those children (Patrick, Kelli, David, and Beth) grew up to be smart, clever, and extremely successful in their own varied fields. I can assert that, arguably, Beth was the most clever, perhaps one of the most-clever in all the land. I am, of course, partial, but not dishonestly so. I am her devoted and eternally captivated wife, Stacey Maddox. My son Joseph was Beth’s profoundly-loved stepson and he will forever be a greater man for it. Our nephew, Aidan O'Neill is the last of this O'Neill branch, but Beth believed him plenty capable and brilliant to represent them into the future. Beth was also lucky enough to maintain her best friend from childhood, Betsy Hodson, and her family, the Thomas', became essentially kinfolk over the years. As well as a myriad of actual kin and cousins. The point being that she is desperately missed by so many. Beth excelled throughout her education—Gonzaga for undergrad, Boalt Hall, now simply UC Berkeley, for her law degree. She was a force, graduating in the top 1 percent for her JD. She would be horrified to see that included here, but it’s a statistic that many find significant. She almost exclusively focused on healthcare in her legal career. There were notable successes that involved extreme creativity to solve whatever problems in which her clients found themselves entangled. But perhaps the one achievement for which Beth deserves open and unsatisfied recognition is the creation of Ramsell Public Health and Safety. Under the Affordable Care Act, eligibility for Medi-Cal in our state was expanded from certain populations to being purely based on income. Beth was ever the extrapolator and knew these Medi-Cal dollars were underutilized. So she came up with a program that used Medicare expansion funds to reimburse probation departments for targeted case management for their newly-qualified probationers. Recidivism is a virtual plague on our society, and attention to certain needs—like therapy, medication compliance, housing, employment, anger management, etc—that have historically exacerbated the problem of re-offending, coupled with more personalized attention, could make a critical difference. I’m sure I have oversimplified the program, but it was brilliant actually. Probation departments across our state were jumping on board. They were excited about accessing all this available money but also about the opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of these probationers for whom they were responsible. It was an impossibly detailed process since she made it up—completely. If one can imagine a business start-up designed to work with county and state governments using federal dollars you might begin to realize the potential for complications. There were ups and downs and many, many speed bumps. Until, at the very height of her momentum, and to the shock of everyone, Trump was elected president and immediately began gunning for the ACA. It became swiftly clear that no one really wanted to invest time in training and upsetting their process for a program that would likely disappear in a year. It was her baby. It was truly inspired, and it would have absolutely changed our world. And then it was gone. She handled it as only Beth O’Neill could; she focused on her employees, their needs, and helping them find employment in whatever way she could. She took it in stride and went right back to being a healthcare lawyer. A few of us knew the magnitude of what was lost and could appreciate her resiliency in the failure. I am woefully unqualified to adequately describe Beth’s work life so I asked for help from a dear colleague and cherished friend, Leslie Murphy. I see no need to edit a thing and humbly defer to someone who both worked with and loved Beth: “Beth was an accomplished healthcare lawyer. She had the rare ability to handle complex regulatory and transaction matters, in addition to all aspects of litigation. Beth enjoyed the intellectual rigor of analyzing complex legal issues and insisted on excellence in her written work. Beth’s legal writing was one of the many ways she set herself apart from others. Her writing was so eloquent that you could almost forget you were reading legal prose. Beth inspired confidence in her clients and earned the admiration of her fellow lawyers due to her ability to explain complex legal issues with precision and clarity. Experienced lawyers and clients routinely turned to Beth for sophisticated legal advice on the toughest issues. Beth also lent many hours mentoring junior lawyers and helping them develop their legal writing skills. These are just a few of the reasons why Beth was considered a trusted advisor to her clients and colleagues.” “Clear” and “concise” are repeated themes when it comes to all of her writing. Beth could take complicated and stunningly boring legal arguments and make it something I could understand, so a magician really. She was a breathtaking writer. She used all the words and used them well. She even made up a few and language was a source of great enjoyment in our lives. If any of you have ever read any of her personal writings, you’ll know of what I speak. It was like great music—that song that makes your soul smile; she was that good. She would claim that great writing was born of reading great works. Beth read everything: fiction, non-fiction, biographies, history, science, science-fiction, and gobbled up short stories and essays by any great writer. At any one time there could be a dozen books (and a couple Kindles) paused mid-read scattered about the house, spines cracked, coffee/wine stains, even pages marked. Not that they were forgotten or abandoned, she was reading them all. She was a thinker and intensely curious about most anything. She knew a lot about everything, but the thing that interested her the most was the thing she was reading at that moment. My amazing wife had one great love that many would find surprising, and those who do know probably underestimate her intensity. She was a tremendous lover and champion of animals. She never met a dog that didn’t immediately honor her as their alpha. Our home is surrounded by birds, both the greatest and smallest, and she was intently tuned into their sounds and readily took predators to task. She could hear a baby duck trapped in rocks at over 100 yards away and would race to the rescue, regardless of how she might be feeling. She was a tender-hearted marvel. Better known by all was her seemingly-bottomless well of love and compassion for her fellow man. Beth met each person right where they were. She operated without judgement or any desire to make anyone more like herself. She was occasionally disappointed by her fellow humans and their aptitude to hurt one another. But her forgiveness knew no terminus. As a matter of fact, if you once found yourself tucked under her wing of acceptance, you were guaranteed a place there forever. People doing people-things was all that registered to Beth. I think I speak for all whom she held most dear when I say Beth O’Neill was an absolutely spectacular human, the likes of which the world will never see again. I know I am forever transformed by the brief lifetime we shared together. “Here is something you need to know about these friends of mine: That they are absurdly clever and engaging is only half of it. They are also kind and gentle and thoughtful and generous in the most humbling of ways.” - Elizabeth O’Neill *We have postponed a service until restrictions on gatherings are lifted. If you would like to be included but you think the family may not have your contact info and/or if you have a story about Beth you would like to share, please send it to stacey_maddox@hotmail.com.