Crystal Rae Burress

Crystal Rae Burress, beloved mother, grandmother, sister, auntie, and friend, left this world for her next journey on March 13th, 2026, at the age of 73, after a long battle with cancer. Leave it to our Crystal to take her leave in the middle of the night on Friday the 13th.

She was born on August 15th, 1952, to Cletus and Joanne Phillips, the eldest of an eventual clan of five brothers and two sisters. Her early years were spent in a variety of places as her father sought work across the country—from New Jersey to Chicago to California. Eventually, the family put down roots in the Skagit Valley, where her mother had grown up. She attended Mount Vernon High School while living on the old farm on Stackpole Road. It was here that her long love affair with her beloved horses began in earnest—a passion she would keep for life.

Her first marriage gave her the greatest gift of her life, her daughter Melanie. After her divorce, raising Melanie and attending to her needs became her sole focus. They originally lived in Tucson, Arizona, and after her divorce, in Phoenix, where Crystal learned the art of belly dancing. She eventually performed professionally for a time under the stage name “Balloura.” In subsequent years, requests for command performances would bring the entire family together—aunts, uncles, and cousins—to marvel at this wonderful ancient art form that she mastered so well.

As a single mother raising a young daughter, Crystal ran a tight ship and worked very hard to provide stability and structure for Melanie. These are my childhood memories of my sister: arriving at various family functions with her daughter in tow, which sometimes made it hard to feel like she was my sister. My youngest brother was just about Melanie’s age, and due to Crystal’s frequent babysitting of all of us, she felt more like a second mother than my sister at the time.

To call her beautiful seems inadequate, as she was simply radiant, always. But her priority was her daughter, and she was a very no-nonsense parent in the early days. Like all of us, the search for love led her to a dead end or two, but she emerged stronger and wiser for the experience. Eventually, Crystal met the man she would spend more than three decades with, Bob Burress. Settling in Burlington, their home at the country club became a hub for countless gatherings, Super Bowls, holidays, celebrations, poker nights, and so much more. With Melanie raised and off chasing her destiny back in Tucson, Crystal became more than my older sister. She became my friend.

These were the years she settled into her wonderful self. She took a job in the county auditor’s office, first in licensing and eventually in finance, and also ran the business end of Bob’s car lot in Burlington. A consummate hostess, whose superior tastes in household scents meant that even with your eyes closed, you still knew you were at Crystal’s (those who know, know!). She and Bobby-Jo journeyed off on endless adventures, with years of travel, camping, rodeos, boating (houseboat trips were a highlight), and mischief far and wide. Crystal’s love of family, celebration, and good times was legendary. When I think of the last time I saw her, I can still smell the tequila (only the good stuff, please). Memories of raiding her fifth wheel for pastries, sitting by the fire at her property at Lake Tyee, hot-tubbing in her backyard, and long conversations trailing into the night are piled high. She also maintained very close relationships with a handful of her good friends, always making time to keep those relationships vital and alive. She spent many wonderful years with her daughter and friends attending the Rodeo in Sisters, Oregon, a yearly event she always looked forward to with joy.

As time passed, both her husband’s mother and her own required a lot of personal care and attention in their senior years, and Crystal rose to the occasion, as gut-wrenching as that journey was. Although she had retired from the county, she was constantly occupied by one challenge or urgent issue after another, from doctor’s visits and home care to emergency room trips. Those were difficult years, and eventually she and Bob divorced after more than 30 years together. Along with the upheaval of COVID, Crystal made the decision to move to Kuna, Idaho, to be closer to her mother in memory care and our sister Julie. It was here that the diagnosis of cancer came.

She met the news with her traditional tough-as-nails stoicism and grit. She embarked on a treatment program and endured chemotherapy and radiation that left her depleted, but she kept that smile on her face and continued to live her life with purpose.

While the news of the cancer was unwelcome (and unfair), it allowed the blessing of a wonderful rekindling of her relationship with her sister. Her years in Idaho with Julie and her family were spent in joy, celebrating life in a way she had been unable to for some time. She became an indispensable presence in the lives of Julie’s children and grandchildren, taking relish in her role as Auntie Crystal. It was also in Idaho that her early passion for horses was rediscovered, as she had the opportunity to ride again and spend plenty of time around her spirit animals. And despite being a cancer patient, she dug in and did it right—even fracturing a leg and losing part of a finger in the process! To say this woman was tough would be a serious understatement.

Eventually, as her cancer progressed, the decision was made to move back to Tucson with her daughter Melanie and her husband Dan. They built her beloved little casita on Melanie’s property, where she spent her days surrounded by Melanie and Dan’s family—their children and grandchildren. Crystal’s heart sang to be back in the southern desert she had dreamed of during her many decades in the dark, wet Northwest, and many good times were had, even in the face of shrinking options for treatment. In time, she decided to suspend treatment altogether, and her final days were spent entertaining visiting family and friends and being with her daughter—her north star.

She was a life force and an open book. She was also a great mystery and a cauldron of secrets. That was her winning combination—something impossibly inviting and yet also deeply layered, the deeper levels for a select few only, the deepest level for her alone. She was the epitome of love and selfless giving, always prioritizing others’ needs over her own as if by instinct. She was cheerful and positive even in the face of this terrible affliction, and she was, in the end, purely love. It was what she brought to us, what she gave to us, and what she left for us.

Crystal is survived by her daughter, Melanie Massey, and Melanie’s husband, Dan.

She is also survived by her sister, Julie McMillan, and Julie’s husband, Quintin; her brothers Richard (Cindy) Phillips, Pat (Jill) Phillips, John (Becky) Phillips, Matt (Holly) Phillips, and Paul Phillips; her granddaughters Amber (Jesse) McCoy and Grace (Steven) Kirker; and her great-grandchildren Max McCoy and Millie Kirker. Her many nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews are too numerous to mention but all so loved. And by her close friends Lori Love, Cathy Dostart, and Carolyn VanderVegt.

Look up at the sky tonight, and you’ll see her shining down on us all.