Judith Ann Vicari, resident of Mesa, Arizona, formerly of Rockford, Illinois, passed away on January 5th, 2026 at the age of 84 years.
She was born on September 9th, 1941 in LaSalle, Illinois and grew up in Rockford, Illinois. She went to college for a short time, returned home and then enlisted in the United States Air Force. She fondly talked about her duties like providing pilots with weather briefing information. She met her husband, James T Keck Jr., who was also in the Air Force. She had and raised two children as she followed him around the world from one duty assignment to another living at each place about three years. She lived in France, England, Massachusetts, Iran, New York, Italy, Hawaii, and then settled down in San Jose, California when he retired. They took advantage of annual leave when they could and visited many of the States they didn’t live in and most of the Western European countries including the town of Vicari, Sicily where her grandfather grew up and the origin of the family name.
She went back to her home in Illinois while he served in Vietnam. She taught English to members of the Iranian military. She continued her education earning her baccalaureate degree primarily from offerings that were available to her at satellite campuses on military bases and then her Masters of Business Administration from the University of Hawaii while living there.
She returned to work initially in accounting at a Silicon Valley software company, owned her own printing business for a short time, worked on a Millennium project for the State of Arizona, worked for Phoenix based America West airlines, and graded assessments and tests for Pearson.
She enjoyed cooking and reading about a wide variety of topics. One of the things she missed the most during the last year was choosing and cooking her own meals.
She will be sadly missed by her two sons, James (Carrie) T Keck III and Jeffrey (Tracy) T Keck, three grandchildren Cory M Keck, Matthew T Keck and Reagan Keck and her sisters, Mary Jane Vicari and Joanne Bullock. She is predeceased by her parents, John and Jeanette (Banasiewicz) Vicari, her brother, John J. Vicari and long term partner, James Thomas “Jim” Sartori.