Opal Hammer, Longtime Ventura Resident

Opal Geneva Hammer, a longtime Ventura resident, died Jan. 3 after a brief illness. She was 91.

Hammer was born on Christmas Day, 1905, in Provo, Ark. She married in 1923. Nine years later, Hammer, husband Jesse and the couple’s two oldest children moved to Ventura during the Great Depression.

“My father had a brother here,” said Hammer’s son, John, of Ventura. He said Ventura’s coastal climate also helped relieve respiratory problems his mother suffered in Arkansas.

Opal and Jesse Hammer had four more children while living in Ventura. Misfortune struck the family in 1946 when Jesse Hammer was killed in an industrial accident, leaving his wife to support their six children.

John Hammer said that his mother began baby-sitting to earn a living. She also raised chickens and sold eggs from her Ventura Avenue home, where she lived for 51 years. John Hammer said his mother loved gardening and growing roses.

“She enjoyed them so much she had roses everywhere in the backyard,” he said.

Later in life, Opal Hammer managed an apartment building she owned, and volunteered at the Ventura Senior Citizen Center. She was also a member of the New Hope Christian Center in Oak View for 38 years.

Besides son John, Hammer is also survived by son James, and daughters Maxine Spaulding and Jacqueline L. Stroud, all of Ventura; daughter Carol Jean Ghibaudy of Westville, Ill.; 10 grandchildren; 21 great-grandchildren; and five great-great grandchildren.

She also was preceded in death by a son, Floyd.

Services will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Ted Mayr Funeral Home in Ventura. A private graveside service will follow at Ivy Lawn Memorial Park in Ventura.

Arrangements are under the direction of Ted Mayr Funeral Home.