Search for celebrities on Ancestry.com!Julie Henderson
Services will be today for Julia Henderson, who died at Watsonville Community Hospital on Monday. She was 63.
A native of Boonville, Ark., she lived in the Santa Cruz area for more than 40 years after moving here from Salinas.
She was a certified nursing assistant at Cresthaven Nursing Home in Santa Cruz during a nursing career that spanned more than 25 years.
A graduate of Salinas High School, she worked for General Box for many years before moving to Santa Cruz.
Her family said she loved spending time with her children and grandchildren, and recalled her fondness for her cat.
She was also an avid reader, and enjoyed shopping, decorating and collecting jewelry.
She attended Liberty Baptist Church in Santa Cruz.
She is survived by daughters Vickie Page of Santa Cruz and Kelly Maffi and Sherrie Neal of Sacramento; sons Gary Coffey of Anderson, Ind. and Greg Henderson of Santa Cruz; sister Georgann Crawford of Sacramento; and 14 grandchildren.
Services will be at 11 a.m. today at Benito and Azzaro Pacific Gardens Chapel, 1050 Cayuga St. A Burial service will be 1:30 p.m. today at Garden of Memories in Salinas.
August 2, 2002
Dennis St. Amand
Services will be Saturday for Dennis St. Amand, who died Tuesday at his Aptos home.
Mr. St. Amand was born in Los Angeles and was an Eagle Scout in his earlier years. He lived in Aptos for 26 years.
Mr. St. Amand owned Total Concern Salon in Aptos. He was named Best Hairdresser by Good Times newspaper in 1987.
He is survived by his wife, Sandra St. Amand of Aptos; his mother, Lillian St. Amand of La Habra; daughters Denise Hilsabeck of Torrance and Tricia St. Amand of Monterey; stepdaughter Lisa Page of Los Angeles; brother Edward St. Amand of Taccoa, Ga.; sister Jeanne Elliott of La Habra; a granddaughter; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Services will be 11 a.m. Saturday at Oakwood Memorial Chapel, 3301 Paul Sweet Road, Santa Cruz.
Contributions are preferred to New Horizons School, PO Box 3655, Santa Cruz, CA 95063.
August 2, 2002
Bryan Lewis Fisher
Services will be Monday for Bryan Lewis Fisher, who died Saturday. He was 57 and had suffered from cystic fibrosis for most of his life.
Mr. Fisher was born in Duluth, Minn., and lived in Los Gatos before moving to Santa Cruz County 14 years ago.
He taught literature and history at Morrill Middle School in San Jose for more than 20 years.
Family members say he was a popular teacher who continued to get calls from former students thanking him for his help and his demands for excellence, though he had been retired for five years.
In one favorite classroom project he called Destination USA, he directed students to research their family history. The emigration stories of their relatives revealed a spectrum of world history, from the potato famine in Ireland to the hardships of leaving Vietnam to conflicts in Central America.
Recently, he helped design, plant and maintain more than 6,000 native plants at Linear Park, a walking trail in Scotts Valley near Skypark.
He is survived by wife Linda Fisher of Scotts Valley; mother Harriet Fisher of St. Paul, Minn.; brothers Ronald Fisher of Cleveland, Bruce Fisher of St. Paul, Larry Fisher of Manchester, N.H., Terry Fisher of Wells, N.Y. and Errol Fisher of Greeley, Colo.; and sister Barbara Cloues of St. Paul.
A ceremony of light will be 5 p.m. Monday at Oakwood Memorial Chapel, 3301 Paul Sweet Road, Santa Cruz. Friends are asked to bring a votive candle to the ceremony.
Contributions are preferred to the Bryan Fisher Memorial Fund, to buy novels for Morrill students, checks payable to Berryessa Union School District, 1376 Piedmont Road, San Jose, CA 95132, call (408) 923-1930, or in his name to The Land of the Medicine Buddha, to help finish the Memorial Shrine, 5800 Prescott Road, Soquel, CA 95073, call 476-0865.
August 2, 2002
Donald A. Cox
Services will be Tuesday for Donald A. Cox, who died Tuesday at his Aptos home. He was 87.
Mr. Cox was born in Aptos and graduated from Watsonville High School. He and his two brothers owned Cox Brothers Tractors in Watsonville.
Mr. Cox was active in the county Farm Bureau. He loved fishing, gardening and farming at his Aptos home.
He is survived by daughter Dona S. Evans of Aptos; three grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Services will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Davis Memorial Chapel, 609 Main St., Watsonville.
Private Burial will follow at Pajaro Valley Memorial Park.
Contributions are preferred to the Alzheimer’s Association, or to Hospice Caring Project of Santa Cruz County, 6851 Soquel Drive, Aptos, CA 95003.
August 2, 2002
Ray Clark Ditty Jr.
Services will be Aug. 24 for Ray Clark Ditty Jr., who died Sunday. He was 64.
Mr. Ditty was born in Santa Cruz and worked for RMC Pacific Materials, formerly Lonestar, for 43 years.
He is survived by his wife of 41 years, Ruth.
Services will be Aug. 24 at Church of the Nazarene.
Arrangements are by Oakwood Memorial Chapel.
August 2, 2002
Jack Loren Reed
At his request, no services will be held for Jack Loren Reed, who died Monday at his home in Soquel. He was 84.
Mr. Reed was born on a cattle ranch in Parshall, Colo., and lived in Southern and Central California before moving to Soquel in the 1960s.
He graduated from Fairfax High School in Los Angeles and attended Black Fox Military Academy before earning a football scholarship to the USC.
Mr. Reed left college to run his ailing father’s concrete contracting company. He moved to Fresno County in 1940 with his new wife, Jane, to become a rancher, and then to Madera in 1947 to resume his construction career as a custom home builder. He moved to Fresno in 1958.
Mr. Reed was always interested in helping the community, family members say. He was elected to the Madera City School Board and volunteered with the Boy Scouts and the Rotary Club.
He was an excellent home builder, family members say, but was most proud of his three sons and never missed their high school or college football games. Mr. Reed spent countless hours raising money for school activities as president of the Bullard High School Boosters Club.
In Soquel, he bought and renovated an old country home on Soquel Creek and taught Carpenters Union Apprenticeship evening classes at Cabrillo College.
After his 1992 retirement, he served two terms on the Central Fire District board. He spent his most enjoyable hours with his grandchildren, passing on family "sayings" and "walking around money," and enjoyed caring for his three springer spaniels.
He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Jane Reed of Soquel; sons Jack Reed of San Diego, Dean and Bruce Reed, both of Santa Cruz; and eight grandchildren.
It was Mr. Reed’s wish to be cremated without a service. A family memorial will be held in late summer.
Contributions are preferred to Hospice Caring Project of Santa Cruz County, PO Box 670, Aptos, CA 95003.
August 8, 2002
Christopher Michael Scurich
Services will be Thursday for Christopher Michael Scurich, who died Monday at his home in Salinas, after suffering from cancer for one year. He was 30.
Mr. Scurich was born and raised up in Watsonville and had moved to Salinas three years ago.
He attended Notre Dame Elementary School and in 1990 graduated from Watsonville High School, where he was a star basketball gunner. A 1990 Sentinel article reports that he set a state record with 11, three-point baskets in one game and had hit 75 long-range bombs that season, more than double anyone else in the league.
Mr. Scurich told a reporter that family was very important to him.
"My grandfather comes to every one of my games and sits in the front row," he said. "I know he is getting up there in age so I try to play especially hard for him."
Mr. Scurich also loved golf.
He attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and worked as a sales and account manager with Inland Container Co., and previously for the Stone Container Co. and Chep Pallett Co., all in Salinas.
He is survived by his mother, Moira Anne Scurich of Fresno; brothers Peter Nicholas Scurich of Fresno and Edmund O’Connell Scurich of Salinas; one uncle; one cousin; and one niece.
His father, Nicholas Peter Scurich, died in 1991.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be 3 p.m. Thursday at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church on Spreckels Boulevard in Spreckels.
Private Burial will be at Valley Catholic Cemetery in Watsonville.
Contributions are preferred to VNA Hospice, 957-A Blanco Circle, Salinas, CA 93901, or to the Salinas Valley Memorial Foundation, Oncology Fund, PO Box 4760, Salinas, CA 93912.
August 8, 2002
