Born in Detroit, MI, "Syl" was reared in south Ft. Worth, TX and attended grade school, high school, and college there. Her daughter Angie now lives in the home Sylvia purchased and lived in in south Ft. Worth/west Arlington where she reared her daughters. She was a resident of Tularosa, NM with her husband Larry.

She lived in many places across the western US, from Texas to California, and traveled extensively throughout the continental United States and Canada sharing and teaching counseling practices with her now deceased husband and author Rodney Blanks. Sylvia frequently said she was a survivor who filled her environment with concern for others and service to the needy and hurting. She received a professional degree in counseling from Tarrant County Community College in Ft. Worth where she served very successfully as the fund raising coordinator for the DFW area March of Dimes. Sylvia was a licensed Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor using her own past experiences to help those struggling with addictions or from abuse through the NM Parole Board and her own counseling services. She ran a house for battered women and recovering addicts in Alamogordo, NM for a number of years until she officially retired. She served her community through LOVE INC. in Alamogordo, NM where she was a co-founder of the food pantry and served for several years as it coordinator, and later as a volunteer worker and counselor to the present. She was president of The Otero County Health Council. Sylvia loved volunteering, artistic painting, reading, watching old classic movies, spending time with friends and telling how proud she was of her daughters and grandsons, going to The Sands Theater for great movies after church and Chinese food on Sundays, gardening, traveling, and loved riding her motorcycle with "biker brothers and sisters" and was an active member and officer of "Thunder and Lightening Motorcycle Ministry" of Alamogordo, NM. She was an active member of New Heart Cowboy Church of Alamogordo with her husband Larry. Whether working in the food bank or fixing and serving pizza in a local church with fellow T&L members, she always offered recognition, a smile, a listening and attentive ear, and kind and helpful words to others. She said "you have to listen to earn the right to speak", and she was a good listener, friend, and wise counselor to many people from all places along her walk through life.

She was a free spirit who gave her "life to Jesus late in life, but not too late". "She was not mine and not yours. She was God's gift to all who came across her path. She will be missed until we reconnect with her in heaven. She is now in a much better and happier place with old reborn friends and family. She now sees clearly face-to-face with God, her friend, protector and savior, Jesus the Messiah."

She is preceded on her journey into new life by her mother and father Connie and Eli B. Garza (a professional baseball player) previously of Ft. Worth, TX, and her beloved Uncle Henrie Osborne, previously of Austin, TX where she also lived for a few years.

She is survived by: her older sister Janie Richardson of Alamogordo, NM; her older brother Eli Garza (and his three grown children) of Lone Star, TX; her two daughters, Leta Everett (son-in-law Charlie and two grandsons) of Fort Worth, TX, and Angie King of Fort Worth, TX; and her husband Larry Mast of Tularosa, NM who met her at a Christian biker rally in Granbury, TX 6 years ago and found "true love of the best kind". It has been a wonderful 6 year ride down the road of life with her, for which he is most grateful...

It is requested that memorial gifts, if desired to be given, be sent to:
Love Inc of Otero County
2826 Indian Wells Rd.
Alamogordo, NM 88310

"...One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead" I get on with living in the here-and-now, and that's why it is called "the present".
(Philippians 3:13, NIV) and Sylvia King
Until we meet again in Heaven my beloved wife.

A memorial service and celebration of her life will be held at 10:00 AM on Saturday Oct. 25, 2014 at New Heart Cowboy Church at 2930 White Sands Blvd. Alamogordo, NM. 88310, with lunch and fellowship to follow. Biker attire and arrival by motorcycle preferred but by no means required. Her ashes will be spread by family in a private ceremony in the mountains at a future time. It is requested that guests who knew her write a comment, or experience, or statement of how she impacted your life on an 8.5x11 piece of paper. They will collected and scanned for inclusion in a memorial book for her surviving family. If you have digital or scanned photos of her that you wish to share, talk to Larry Mast after the service for information about where to send them.