Socorro Romero; Retired Mattel Employee

Socorro Romero, a 25-year Mattel Toys employee, has died at a Woodland Hills hospital. She was 78.

A resident of Woodland Hills, Mrs. Romero died Sunday of complications from a recent heart attack, according to a family member.

Born Socorro Medrano in Santa Fe, N.M., she came to California in the early 1940s.

She worked as a riveter for Hughes Aircraft Co. in El Segundo.

Later, she was hired by Mattel Toys in Hawthorne and worked on an assembly line that made the original Barbie doll in 1959.

She moved from Harbor City to Van Nuys in the early 1970s and retired in the mid-1970s.

Mrs. Romero was also a member of the Owensmouth Garden Club.

She is survived by her daughters, Agnes and Anita; two sisters, Pina Armijo and Emily Ponce, both of Santa Fe, and five grandchildren.

Her husband, Jerry, died in 1966, and a grandson, Michael, died in 1987.

Visitation is planned from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, with a rosary at 7 p.m., at Pierce Brothers-Praiswater Mortuary, 7245 Remmet Ave. in Canoga Park, which is handling arrangements.

A funeral Mass is scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday at Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church, 7117 Topanga Canyon Blvd. in Canoga Park.

Burial will follow at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills.

Donations can be made in Mrs. Romero’s name to the American Cancer Society and Arthritis Foundation.