Verna Preciado

Verna Preciado 

Verna Preciado’s final wish, to quietly pass, was granted on December 11, 2016 after a hard fought battle against throat cancer.  When asked to comment on what her obituary should say, she humbly replied with her hilarious honesty, “Verna died!”

Born the second of three daughters on April 12, 1929 in downtown Los Angeles to the union of Victor Manuel Pinzon and Estela Duarte, Verna grew up watching the City of Angels transform into the metropolis that it is today.  After graduating from Belmont High and a short stint at LA City College, vivacious Verna was offered a job at renowned Schierson Brothers Music located on 3rd and S. Broadway by the owner himself.  Due to her wit, energy and honesty she advanced, over her nine years of employment, from bilingual interpreter to bookkeeper to “Chief Record Buyer”. This presented her with abundant opportunities to visit live music venues, screen potential and legendary artists and purchase, if impressed, their records for the famed music store. 

In late 1952 at a family BBQ at Griffith Park, dressed in Levi pedal pushers with her radiant red hair held together in curlers and scarf, the always smiling Verna met the love of her life Cecil Preciado who had made the trek from his home in Santa Paula.  Daily letters sent “Special Delivery” and a three-year courtship later, they were married on September 2nd, 1955.  They enjoyed a month-long honeymoon driving and hoteling from Carmel to Vancouver and a marriage that would last 61 years in Santa Paula’s cozy environment.    

Moving into Uncle Cid Huerta’s rental on Whipple Road on the eastern outskirts of town was made easier with fireman Cecil’s multitude of family and friends and the birth of their two sons Victor in 1956 and Cid in 1959.  In 1963 their young family moved into their present home on Hobbs Circle where homemaker Verna was regularly the life of the party possessing a laughter that made anyone want to be included.  

Surrounded with a treasure chest of lifelong friends, her passions included her purebred Collies, “Happy” and “Lady”, television show “The Golden Girls”, her weekly “Pokeno” get-together,  or accompanying  Cecil, as “back seat” Verna, to watch his beloved Santa Paula High School Cardinal sports activities.   She will be remembered at La Familia Diaz Restaurant where she regularly lunched with close friends Celia Diaz and Mary Arguelles at their infamous Table #3.  Her greatest pastime ---Casino slots, stands tall and shoulders above the rest and her passing creates a great void in the Las Vegas resorts and the Chumash Indian Reservation where she pulled her last lever in her final week of life.