JAMES MICHAEL MCNAMARA......GOD GRANT HIM ETERNAL LIFE AND PEACE............

As a native Sacramentan, proud of my hometown of Sacramento, California, I am always happy to celebrate and chronicle the contributions of other Sacramentans and their lifelong commitment to the betterment of this community.  James Michael "Jim" McNamara, who passed from this life last Wednesday June 13th, was one such man.  His family I have been privileged to know since childhood.  Jim McNamara gently and conscientiously lived his interpersonal commitment to his family, his Catholic-Christian Faith, to his skill for baseball / softball, and to his unwavering dedication to serving the Sacramento community, with excellence and zeal.  A  graduate of Christian  Brothers High School where he was the Baseball team co-Captain in the year, they garnered a 15-0 winning season for the CB Gaels, Jim was also named an All City baseball player that year, in which the team won the Sacramento City Championship, and is who  what his nephew Joe describes as, "one of the finest fielding shortstops from Sacramento ever", he was drafted by the New York Giants in 1948, and spent several years playing with the NY Giants minor league teams.  With his brothers Johnny and Frank, Jim played in the Sacramento bush leagues, and in the 1950's they were instrumental in winning Winter League championships three times, for the well known Julius Men's Shop.  Born as one of five children to John and Josephine McNamara, and beloved brother of Mary, John, Frank, and their late sister Ann, Jim was the devoted husband for 56 years of Mildred Petralli, the father of  daughter Patti, and son Tom, as well as grandfather to two granddaughters, and four grandsons.  The fidelity to his Faith and Family Jim McNamara exemplified throughout his life and carried out in every facet of his earthly dwelling, were instilled in him early and remained indelibly.  They were cultivated in the McNamara Family Home; in St. Francis of Assisi Parish Church; at Christian Brothers High School; and in his thirty four years working for Sacramento County, as a judicial administrator..  The bond with baseball/softball, that is a predominant McNamara Family trait, has continued in Jim's life for the past twenty five years, up until the most recent last months of his life.   The Funeral services commemorating Jim McNamara are being celebrated tonight and tomorrow morning in St. Anthony's Church in the Greenhaven/Pocket area of Sacramento.  The Rosary Vigil Service this evening at 7:30 p.m., and his Funeral Mass tomorrow morning at 11:30 a.m.  The authenticity of the depth of the Irish Americans he and his family are, and represent, I have encapsulated in a photograph placed on my Facebook page.  It is a picture of Jim hoisting aloft a bottle of Guinness, a most appropriate memorable moment of this affable and stellar man.  Please consider viewing it, along with the sympathy guestbooks of the Sacramento Bee, and W.F. Gormley's Funeral Directors, both which can be found at SacBee.com, online.   God Grant the Soul of James Michael McNamara Eternal Light in the Life and Peace of God's Everlasting Kingdom.  In Thanksgiving and Gratitude For Jim and the Exemplary Faithful Witness He was and will be Forever,............Fr.  Troy

............It strikes me as most appropriate that Jim's earthly life concluded just hours after he watched San Francisco Giants pitcher Matt Cain's Perfect Game !!!!!!!!!!!!