Officials Tell Tales About ‘Story Lady’ : Education: An elementary school named after the late Oxnard librarian Emilie Ritchen is dedicated.

Oxnard and school officials on Saturday officially declared the opening of Emilie Ritchen Elementary School, as friends and former co-workers recounted affectionate memories of the school’s namesake.

More than 100 parents, children and school administrators heard tributes to the late Emilie Ritchen, known as Oxnard’s “Story Lady” who ran the city library for 25 years.

Located in northwest Oxnard, the Emilie Ritchen Elementary School was built in less than three years with money generated by a local bond measure. The school is slated to receive its first group of students when classes begin this fall.

“The spirit of Emilie Ritchen will remain alive here at our school,” Ernie Morrison, principal of the new school, told the crowd. Morrison, an Oxnard native, said he grew up listening to the spellbinding tales Ritchen would read from books.

“She was a fantastic storyteller,” Morrison said. “We didn’t need a television, the pictures in your mind were perfect.”

Ritchen, who died in 1989, lived long enough to see ground broken for the school, which will serve more than 1,200 students on a year-round basis.

“There are hundreds of thousands of people whose lives were affected by Ms. Ritchen,” said Dolores Benser, who worked under Ritchen and is still a librarian in Oxnard.

Benser amused the crowd with stories of Ritchen, who was decidedly not a typical librarian. She was well-known for her humor and practical jokes, included hiding a fake mouse in the library shelves. And she had a flair for fashion, Benser said, striding around the library in high heels.

“I feel like I have a real responsibility to make this school what Emilie would want if she were present,” Morrison said, noting that the new school’s library has a large storytelling area. “Emilie would have loved it.”