South Bay people lost in 2020

“The evening began when fellow Concours d’Elegance committee member Dick Boberg, dressed in his bib and tucker, arrived at my home in his 1930 Rolls Royce Phantom II Hooper Boat-tail Tourer to take me to my party. I felt like Cinderella.” -- Mary Jane Schoenheider recalling the evening in 2004 when the Palos Verdes Chamber honored her as Woman of the Year. Photo

January

 

Customers created a memorial shrine to Maria Siddiq at her Hermosa Beach pet store following her passing. Photo by Beverly Baird

Beloved Pet Mart owner Maria 

 

Longtime Pet Mart owner Maria Siddiq passed away Sunday, Jan. 12, after a long fight against cancer. She was 71. Da Silva acquired Pet Mart in Hermosa Beach in 1975. She and husband Abu have operated the store together since they married in 1984. The couple met when his sons became her customers. Abu owned the gas station across the street from Maria’s Aviation Boulevard store.

Maria was born in Portugal and lived in Mozambique before moving to Hermosa Beach in the early 1970s.

“I had to leave. They were killing all the native Portuguese,” Maria said in an interview last year, when her store was voted Best Pet Store by Easy Reader readers.

In 1984, Pet Mart caught fire and the property owner didn’t want to let her rebuild. 

“A developer wanted to partner with me in buying the property. He told me I’d never get a bank loan on my own because I was a woman and a foreigner,” Maria recalled. 

Maria obtained the loan and rebuilt the store. ER

 

Wynn Pritzkat was a popular Redondo Beach hair stylist and generous volunteer. Photo courtesy of the Pritzkat family

Redondo stylist Wynn Pritzkat

 

Popular Riviera Village stylist Wynn Pritzkat passed away Jan. 12 from complications involving pneumonia. The three-time cancer survivor was 63. After attending El Camino Community College, Pritzkat spent 40 years in cosmetology, the last 20 at Ariana Hair Studio. 

Pritzkat grew up in Redondo Beach and graduated from Redondo Union High in 1974. 

In 1999, he married Marian De Meire, who became his bedrock. Pritzkat was an accomplished musician and photographer, but is best remembered for his volunteer work. He was an inspirational speaker at Thelma McMillen Recovery Center, volunteered at His Sheltering Arms, a shelter for women in Los Angeles; and was active in the AA’s annual South Bay Roundup. He was a regular at Uncle Bill’s in Manhattan Beach, he spent many mornings on the sand, piloting RC cars and drones. ER

 

Stephens Troeger at the Redondo Beach breakwater circa 1981. Photo courtesy the Troeger family

Steve Troeger was ‘The Rescuer’

 

A recording used for several years in LA County Lifeguard training documents a call between Stephens Troeger, then the Baywatch captain on Catalina Island, and a team of doctors assisting him in trying to revive a two-month-old girl who had stopped breathing. 

Troeger’s voice is calm, almost unhurried. He asks the doctors for the dosage of a medicine. Then, at one point, there is a pause in communication before his voice is heard again. 

“This is hard for me,” Troeger says. “I’m sorry if I’m a little broken up. But it’s my own kid I’m working on.” 

Over the course of a 31-year lifeguard career that included rising to Baywatch captain both at the Isthmus and Avalon, Troeger performed thousands of rescues. 

“If there was a dangerous and difficult situation, he was the guy you would call,” said John Stonier, who served as rescue boat supervising lieutenant for a large swath of Troeger’s career. “Because he would go for it. He didn’t have a death wish or anything. He just knew he could do it.”  

Troeger faced the ultimate test of his poise over the last two years as he endured a painful battle with colon cancer. He passed away on January 24 at the age of 63. ER

 

Nikki Tedesco preached the Word of the Lord and hosted a free thanksgiving dinner in downtown Hermosa Beach for over 50 years. Photo

The South Bay’s Mother Teresa

 

For over 50 years, Nikki Tedesco stood colorfully dressed with a large crucifix preaching the Word of the Lord and consoling the troubled, especially young women, in front of the downtown Hermosa Beach Bank of America and other popular gathering places. Her favourite  saying was  “Give it away, give it away” In 1969, she began hosting free Thanksgiving dinners in her backyard. Over the years, as the crowds grew to several thousand, she moved the dinner to the Hermosa Beach pier entrance, where it continued through 2018, with support from the Redondo Breakwater Church. She passed away in January at age 94. ER

 

February

 

Redondo Councilwoman Kay Horrell (center) and Mayor Barbara Doerr during a Redondo Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting. Undated photo, courtesy of the Horrell family

Horrell was Redondo’s ‘Steel Magnolia’

 

Former Redondo Beach councilwoman and long time Realtor Mary Kathleen “Kay” Horrell passed away Tuesday, February 11, at age 94. Horrell served two terms representing District 2, where she earned the nickname “Steel Magnolia” for her strong opinions and Southern accent. 

Her testimony before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee in Washington D.C. helped the city secure funding to raise the height of the Redondo Beach harbor breakwater from 14 feet to 22 feet to prevent future damage to the harbor from winter storms. 

Horrell served as president of the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce, president of the South Bay Chapter of the City of Hope, chair of the Redondo Beach Library Commission, president of the South Bay Association of Realtors and from 1978 to 1985,  chair of the planning commission. She was elected to the city council in 1985 and served two terms, until 1993. ER

 

March

 

Bob Kelley, a ‘party on two legs’

 

As the sun set and strains of a guitar faded away, a woman called out to her neighbors. “Let’s raise a glass to Bob Kelley.” 

Kelley’s daughter Linda Ruby smiled. In a socially-distanced twist on their customary block parties, her neighbors had gathered to celebrate her late father.

Kelley died March 20 from COVID-19, at 89.

Kelley owned a tool and die shop in Santa Fe Springs. But as a retired sailor in the US Navy, Kelley’s happy place was the water. He was a deep sea fisherman, a passionate square-dancer — , a party on two legs, his friends said.

In early March, as the novel coronavirus was rearing itself in the country’s collective consciousness, Kelley,  daughters Linda and Karen and his former wife Kathleen all tested positive for COVID-19. After being taken to the hospital, Kelley insisted no heroic measures be taken. 

“It was really hard, because with COVID patients, there’s no way to hold their hand,” Linda said. Kelley died six days later. 

The party, as unusual as it was — with people wearing protective equipment and staying on their own property — was wonderful in its way, Linda said. ER

 

April

 

Redondo Sea Hawk quarterback Erik Wilson in a 2008 game against Peninsula High. Photo by Ray Vidal

‘The Big E,’ Erik Wilson

 

A paddleout at Torrance Beach for former Redondo Union High quarterback Erik Wilson (Class of 2008) drew over 300 people from his wide range of friends. They included the University of Washington football players, where Wilson also played quarterback, golfers, paddlers, surfers and volleyball players. Wilson died of a heart attack on April 20. He was 29.

In a eulogy on the beach, before the paddleout, family friend Danny Vaughn said “‘Big E’ was big, strong, and fast, but he always thought of himself as being bigger, stronger, and faster than he really was, which led to many hospital visits for stitches and broken bones.”

“It would be easier for me to say what Erik did not play than what he did play. Volleyball, skiing, snowboarding, surfing, soccer, baseball and of course football. He also loved to compete in junior lifeguards.

“Erik was a three-year, varsity quarterback who led The Sea Hawks to the Bay League Title in 2007. 

“Erik had charisma. He was a big hugger, and greeted everyone with a warm embrace. I remember him coming over to my house unannounced. I got the big hug and after a short back and forth, I could tell he was there for a reason and I told him to cut to the chase. He gives me his shit eating grin and says “Uncle Danny, can you please get me Paige’s (my daughter’s) friend’s phone number.”  ER

 

Hermosa Beach City Manager Steve Burell at the 2003 Hermosa Beach Surfer Walk of Fame inductions. Photo

Burrell was Hermosa’s go to guy

 

Steve Burrell was an old school style, behind the scenes city manager. 

“If someone asked ‘What do you do,’ I’d say I work at City Hall, and leave it at that,” Burrell said.

He was the city manager of Capitola for 15 years before serving as Hermosa’s city manager for 18 years, from 1994 to 2022.

“When officials were fretting over funding sources to remake upper Pier with wider sidewalks, new palm trees and a cutting edge storm drain system, Burrell told council members, ‘You guys put together the project you want, and I’ll find the money,” Councilman Michael DiVirgilio recalled.

“The best thing Steve did was stick around long enough to get things done. The average city manager moves on after five years. Because projects like the Beach House hotel, Pier Plaza and upper Pier Avenue can take decades.

“I can’t point to any other city manager who comes close to completing the number of capital improvement projects Steve did,” former city councilman Sam Edgerton said.

Robert “Burgie” Benz , who served on the council with Edgerton in the 1990s, recalled, After knock, down drag out fights played out in public meetings, Burrell and the City Council — though never a quorum — would retire to the Mermaid or Critters, where I usually had to pick up the tab.”

Burrell passed away in May at his Redondo Beach home at age 72. ER

 

May

 

Gayle Goodrich. Photo

Gayle Goodrich, dancer, dance photographer

 

She honed her photographic skills in the late 1980s when she took boudoir portraits for Pauline Barilla, who owned The Tushery on Hermosa Avenue. Her series “Tango Desnudo” (naked tango) was shown at Flazh!Alley in San Pedro at the end of 2012. In early 2016, Mark Sonner’s Gallery Exposure, in Old Torrance, featured her 53-piece “History of Black Dance in America.” Both series became books. Another volume, “Barely Here,” was published in 2017. Gayle Goodrich succumbed to breast cancer on May 12.

 

July

 

JP Kennedy. Photo by Tom Saunders

Ode to a Bookman, JP Kennedy

 

 

For two decades, Easy Reader published JB Kennedy’s commentaries, devilnitions, and poetry as often as possible. Visitors to his bookstores heard him speak at length about Robinson Jeffers, Ezra Pound, Octavio Paz, James Joyce, e.e. cummings, Wallace Stevens, and many other of our finest mid-century poets.

In the 1970s he had a used book store on Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach. There would be additional bookstores in Redondo Beach, San Pedro, and Torrance. After chancing upon the San Pedro location, Irishman Noel O’Hara wrote an article claiming he’d found the best bookstore in the world. No matter the location, each January 27, when Mozart racked up another birthday, one could walk into the store and hear the glorious sounds of this music master, and there would always be free cupcakes and punch to celebrate the occasion. 

Shortly before his death on July 13 at age 87, he wrote the following poem.

“Condition at 87”

As the ability to breathe

steadily disappears

advancing deafness

finds my ears

and both eyes

find reminders

that each day

I become blinder

and I can’t see

my need to read

as memory losses

pick up speed

 

 

G. Richard “Dick” Reinhardt (USCGA). Photo courtesy of the King Harbor Yacht Club

Reinhardt a seasoned seaman

 

Over 30 boats bearing over 100 King Harbor Yacht Club members circled the 62-foot trawler ‘Saumlaki’ during a Memorial at Sea for Dick Reinhardt, the yacht club’s first commodore. Reinhardt passed away July 29, at age 94, after six decades of service to the boating community.

Reinhardt helped form KHYC in 1960, and was instrumental in its mergers with the Redondo and the Win’ard yacht clubs. He served as KHYC’s treasurer for 20 years and was the recipient of just about every honor given to Southern California sailors.

He taught power, sail, and navigation classes and was an expert in marlinspike and other knots. ER

 

August

 

Scotty Hemstreet was honored with a waterman’s memorial by surfers, boaters and swimmers. Photo by Pete Halvorsen

Scotty Hemstreet could do it all

 

Friends and family recalled Scotty Hemstreet as funny, wickedly smart and often the center of attention, a person who was happiest in motion, either sailing over the ocean or with a skateboard under his feet. His parents hope his passing will highlight the dangers of pharmaceuticals, and the counterfeit pills that have emerged as one of the deadliest scourges of the opioid epidemic.  

The 14-year-old Hermosa Beach resident died in August from an accidental drug overdose inside an east Hermosa home.

“He was good at anything he wanted to be good at,” said Keith Hemstreet, the boy’s father. “It’s kids taking risks with stuff that’s way more dangerous than they think, and it’s just a complete waste.”

Sailors, powerboat skippers, outrigger paddlers, surfers and swimmers gathered in the ocean off 2nd Street for a waterman’s memorial in his honor. A fleet of 8-foot Optimists from the King Harbor Youth Foundation led the procession out of King Harbor. Scotty was on the youth sailing team at the King Harbor Yacht Club. ER

 

Lorene Barker in her studio at Destination Art. Easy Reader file photo

Barker was multi talented and generous teacher 

 

Lorene Barker, of Manhattan Beach, was a talented pianist, vocalist, and artist, an avid reader, nature lover, and lifelong learner who passed on these passions, to her children and grandchildren. She enjoyed a long career as a classroom educator, often serving in underserved communities. She also worked at the University of Southern California and several South Bay aerospace companies. She retired in 2003 and spent her days traveling, volunteering for her church, attending Bible Study and art classes, exploring museums and art exhibits, playing with the family rescue dogs (Ace, Luna, and Phoebe), and enjoying time with her children and grandchildren. She passed away August 21 at age 82. ER

 

October

 

Mike Blount was a popular teacher and volleyball player. Photo courtesy of the family

Blount taught kids science 

 

Long time Hermosa Beach 17th Street volleyball player and Los Angeles Unified School district elementary school science teacher Mike Blount passed away Friday October 16 from complications from throat cancer surgery. Blount had been in a coma for 15 months as a result of surgery.

Blount attended Mira Costa High School and El Camino College where he ran track and cross country. He worked as a  delivery driver for Players Liquor in El Porto. After leaving the Air Force, where he was a setter on the All-Military Services volleyball team, he repaired and painted houses in the South Bay and worked as a bartender at the Redondo Beach Chart House. He earned a BS Degree in English at UCLA and subsequently a master’s degree in Educational Administration from National University. 

He then became an elementary school science teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District. He had a tremendous passion for working with kids in the sciences. He put his English Degree to good use writing financial grant applications to further assist his students. ER

 

John Balk. Photo by Ricky Lesser

Balk shared his love of the ocean

 

John Balk’s final words to loved one was, “Come find me in the water.” 

Balk grew up in Playa Del Rey and attended St. Anastasia, Mira Costa, Marymount, and LMU. He was a Realtor, property manager and a founder of the sunscreen company Auctiv.

Balk discovered his love of the ocean as a child. The ocean is where the skilled surfer made life-long friends and created memories with his family. His love for the water will live on through his young children Koa and Ruby, who already share their father’s passion. 

John Balk passed away on October 20, at the age of 37, following a five year battle with brain cancer. ER

 

Debbie Walmer (left) watching beach volleyball with friends. Photo courtesy of the Walmer family

Manhattan matriarch Debbie Walmer 

 

Passersby, hearing bagpipes and seeing 500 people in beach chairs, socially distanced on the grass at the American Martyrs athletic field on Thursday, Oct. 16, might have thought they were witnessing an Irish storytelling festival.  

The gathering was a memorial for parishioner Debbie Walmer, who passed away Oct. 9 at age 83. It began with Monsignor John Barry recalling that the mother of five was a daily attendee at morning Mass and always sat on the same side of the church. When asked why, she answered, to stay away from the sinners who sit on the other side of the church. And how did she know they were sinners? Because, she told the monsignor, they are my best friends.

Friends and family recalled Walmer as a successful Realtor; honored civic leader; widely traveled; keeper of tradition; and role model to her five children.

“Imagine 500 people gathering in the midst of a pandemic because we just want to say, ‘Debbie, we love you,’” Monsignor Barry said. ER

 

Joanne Purpus with twin sister Marianne on the beach at 14th Street in Hermosa Beach in the early 1950s. Photo courtesy of the Purpus family

Beach mom Joann Purpus

 

Joann Purpus loved Hermosa Beach. She and her husband Tom and sons Mike, Timothy and Dan lived for many years in the valley below St. Cross Church. Joann had 30 chickens, 15 pheasants, three ducks, a dog and a cat. 

Purpus  was president of the Pier Avenue Junior High School PTA and taught the Hermosa Beach Summer School Art Class every year through the ‘70s. She painted in watercolors, oils and acrylics. She made tie dye shirts and macrame purses. Her handmade Teddy Bears sold for $500. She became president of the United States Teddy Bear Association. 

In the mid ‘60s she and best friend Carol Tanner headed up the Hermosa Beach Beautification Committee and spearheaded the Save The Vetter Windmill Campaign. She got the Navy Seabees to help restore the windmill and move it to where it now stands, at the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Aviation Boulevard. 

In ‘67, Purpus and Tanner designed the Hermosa Beach logo, which is still used today. They also helped found The Hermosa Beach Fiesta De La Artes.

She passed away October 20, at age 90, of natural causes. ER

 

 

Redondo Union High students and their families gather at the high school for a candlelight vigil in memory of freshman Wyatt Lee. Photo

Wyatt Lee ‘owned the moment’

 

AYSO Region 34 commissioner Bob Hayes watched Wyatt Lee play soccer for eight years.

“He was a tough player. He played like he was six inches taller and 20 pounds heavier than he really was. Wyatt was a fast defender, but he was getting pushed around by a bigger attacker. His teammates and even his coaches were yelling at us for not calling fouls. Finally, Wyatt chased the attacker down and put a shoulder into him. I call a foul. His team erupts. ‘Why’d Wyatt get called?’

Wyatt came up to me with a smile on his face. He says, ‘Nice call, ref.’” 

“He owned the moment and he owned the rest of the game.’’

Hayes told the story before several hundred of Wyatt’s schoolmates gathered  on the grassy hillside in front of the Redondo Union High auditorium. The student wore red Sea Hawk jerseys and held lighted candles. They were there to remember Wyatt, a freshman, and to support his parents Shannon and Soohan and his older brother, a Redondo High junior.

Wyatt died last Wednesday, Oct. 21. He was 14.

“I prefer not to think of Wyatt dying early. I think of him living 14 strong years,” his drum teacher Robin Bailey said. ER

 

Fran Freeman with husband Jack and band leader Bob White during the unveiling of the Hyperion Outfall Serenaders mural at Shellback Tavern in 2002. Photo by Patrick Fallon

Fran Freeman played the washboard 

 

In 1975, Fran Freeman joined her husband Jack in the Hyperion Outfall Serenaders Dixieland band. She played the washboard and tambourine, while occasionally dancing the Charleston, for the next 40 years.

“Her smile is a Hyperion trademark,” Hyperion bandleader Bob White said in a 2002 interview. “We all have fun playing, but Fran seems to show it the most. She gives the washboard dignity – but not too much.”

The 57 year resident of Manhattan Beach, passed from Alzheimer’s disease on October 24, at the age of 87. ER

 

 

The multitalented Banas also played harmonica. Photo courtesy of the Banas family

Banas was gifted athlete, tradesman

 

 

Tim Banas and his oldest son Tommy were painting on the roof of a Hermosa Beach home when Tim stepped backwards into the air. Mid flight he did a backflip and landed on his feet. 

“Dad, congrats, you stuck the landing,” his son yelled down to him.

Throughout most of his life Tim Banas’s pro level athleticism, male model looks, harmonica playing and hail fellow well met manner made him an admired and welcomed fixture in the surf lineup and at neighborhood volleyball tournaments. Banas’s  three, equally athletic sons Tommy, Ryan and Danny kept him involved in youth sports. He volunteered for Hermosa Beach Little League throughout the 1990s and served as league president in 1997. 

Following his death in a card accident in October, at age 66, the Hermosa Beach Little League issued a statement that noted, “Tim was like a second father to many growing up in Hermosa.”

ER

 

Tom ‘The Computer Guy’ Serafin 

 

After opening his computer repair shop at 26th Street and Hermosa Avenue in 1984, Tom Serafin quickly became known throughout town as “The Computer Guy.” Most of his consultations were conducted on The Strand, during his daily walks to breakfast at La Playita or Scotty’s. He was the rare agnostic when it came to PC or Apple. He was as willing to fix a broken laptop hinge as troubleshoot a data devouring bug. Instruction was free. Repairs and setups cost not much more. 

Friends said Serafin had appeared to be in good health. A recent customer said Seraphin, while admitting he was overweight, demonstrated he could still climb the climbing wall in his studio. He died at home of a heart attack in October. ER

 

November

 

Family and friends gather around Dave Largent’s favorite board. Photo by Wright Adaza

‘Big Wave’ Dave Largent

 

When Dave Largent, a 6-foot-4 highschooler who looked like Clark Kent, tried out for the West High football team in the early ‘60s, the coach told him, ‘The long hair goes or you go.”

The long hair stayed and the legend of “Big Wave Dave” was born. Largent traveled the world in search of big waves before marrying his love Kimberly and raising sons Derek and Dane. On Sunday, Nov. 29, Largent’s family, including Grandma Evie, who raised him, and over 100 friends celebrated his life with a paddleout at 16th Street in Hermosa Beach. Largent passed away Sunday, Nov. 1, at age 66, following a long battle with cancer.

Despite knowing he was terminally ill, he frequently told friends, “God has been good to me.” ER

 

December

 

“The evening began when fellow Concours d’Elegance committee member Dick Boberg, dressed in his bib and tucker, arrived at my home in his 1930 Rolls Royce Phantom II Hooper Boat-tail Tourer to take me to my party. I felt like Cinderella.” — Mary Jane Schoenheider recalling the evening in 2004 when the Palos Verdes Chamber honored her as Woman of the Year. Photo

Peninsula publisher Schoenheider

 

Peninsula magazine co-founder and longtime Peninsula civic leader Mary Jane Schoenheider passed away in December, at age 83. Schoenheider served as Peninsula magazine’s publisher from its founding in 1996 until 2016, when she retired at age 79 because, she said, taking photos at the civic events she attended almost nightly was too hard on her legs.

An editorial in the magazine’s first issue stated, “The stories in Peninsula People are like letters to family members, simply written and accompanied by a few photographs, because a community whose residents don’t know one another ceases to be a community.”

No one could have come more qualified to be publisher of a Peninsula magazine. In 1973, Schoenheider chaired the Los Angeles Philharmonic Peninsula Committee. In 1987, she became the first female member of the Palos Verdes Rotary Club and its president in 2000. She was co-president of the Rolling Hills High School Drama Booster Club, a Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts den mother for over a decade and co-director of the Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance for five years.

In 2004, the Palos Verdes Chamber of Commerce named her Woman of the Year. Upon her retirement, she said she was  hopeful new people will step forward to hold the community together. 

“I have a real worry that the younger people of Palos Verdes are not stepping up into the community positions. If parents see the importance of being involved with the schools, they must also understand that they need to look to the future and get involved with the greater community,” she said. ER

 

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