The Oxnard Rampage : Cities Bid Farewell to Four Victims : Funerals: Admiring friends and tearful family members pack services for Anna F. Velasco, Richard M. Bateman and Phillip Villegas.

At a small church in Fillmore, about 400 friends and family packed the pews Tuesday morning to sing dirges and offer prayers in memory of 42-year-old Anna F. Velasco.

“Everyone has said they could see in Anna a person who really loved others,” Father Norman Supancheck said in his eulogy.

At a funeral home in Ventura, an overflowing crowd shared memories of 65-year-old Richard M. Bateman.

“I’ll miss Dick bringing dandelions over to feed our tortoises,” said Ken Schmidt, a neighbor of Bateman’s in east Ventura. “Our neighborhood is emptier and poorer without him.”

And in Oxnard, there was standing room only during the funeral service for 43-year-old Phillip Villegas.

“Most of us when we leave this life would like to leave a legacy,” Richard Ordonez said, delivering a personal eulogy to his friend Villegas. “I believe we are his legacy. We were the ones that he loved, the ones he helped, the ones whose lives he touched and we must be the ones that carry on.”

Five days after unemployed engineer Alan Winterbourne gunned down three people in the Oxnard unemployment office, Ventura County bid farewell to the dead.

While Villegas and Velasco were both workers at the unemployment office, Bateman had been at the agency last Thursday as part of his part-time job with a nonprofit group that helps disabled adults get employment.

At the Villegas funeral, Ordonez shared some of his memories of his friend to the crowd of more than 400 people at Santa Clara Church in downtown Oxnard. Ordonez recalled that when the father of Villegas’ wife died a few years ago, Villegas immediately took over the yard work, the household chores and other domestic responsibilities for his in-laws.

“He was taught that a strong family foundation was a necessity and to be thankful for what he had and to be compassionate for those less fortunate,” he said. Villegas began working at the Oxnard employment office after he was laid off from his job as a microfilm salesman.

From his own experience with unemployment, Villegas believed that jobless people needed more help filling out the reams of confusing government paperwork required to receive benefits, family members said. He began volunteering at the agency two years ago and four months later he was hired.

Among the mourners Tuesday were some people whom Villegas had helped to find jobs.

Larry Quesada said Villegas was an old friend who had recently helped him get work at the new Walmart in Oxnard. The 46-year-old Quesada fought back tears as he recalled that he last saw Villegas on the night before he was killed, when he dropped by the Walmart to check on the new employees.

“He always came by to see us,” Quesada said. “He would tap us on the shoulder and give us a hug. The last time I saw him he said ‘Hang in there. Take care of yourself.’ A lot of people are going to miss him.”

As Villegas’ family sat in the front pew listening to these eulogies, 23-year-old Phillip Jr. wrapped his arms tightly around his 21-year-old sister, Lisa, and his mother, Karen. Villegas is also survived by a young granddaughter.

Friends and family of Richard Bateman remembered him as a man like Villegas, who loved to help other people.

At a memorial service in Ventura, Assn. for Retarded Citizens Executive Director Fred Robinson spoke to the crowd of more than 200 mourners about how Bateman enjoyed working with the organization’s disabled clients.

As a part-time jobs coach for the association over the past 1 1/2 years, Bateman had used his varied experience in retail and property management to help disabled residents learn skills to find jobs.

“He gave of himself so others could succeed,” Robinson said. “He loved his work and enjoyed the rewards. He made a difference in many lives.”

Bateman’s neighbors in east Ventura will also miss him, said Schmidt.

“We all knew Dick as a gentle, responsible man, the type often described as ‘salt of the earth,’ ” he said. “If there ever was a need in the neighborhood, Dick could be counted on.”

At the end of the service, Scott Weiss, a Ventura real estate broker and musician, played on his trumpet a jazz piece called “Invincible.”

Weiss said Bateman had once worked for his real estate firm and also enjoyed attending his group’s musical gigs.

“He had an old-fashioned morality and the ability to communicate with people of all ages,” Weiss said.

The funeral for Velasco at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Fillmore was also jammed by people of all ages, from crying infants to the elderly.

The crowd included dozens of employees from the Oxnard and Ventura unemployment offices, many of whom also attended the service for Villegas.

Some of these co-workers said they feel stung at the special attention given to the death of Detective James E. O’Brien.

“What really upsets me is that there’s so much outpouring for the officer,” said Loretta Martinez, a worker at the Ventura unemployment office. “And for our people there’s not so much.”

But Martinez said she is thankful O’Brien joined other police officers in trying to stop the gunman. “I don’t mean to minimize what happened to him,” she said.

In the right front row of the church sat many of Velasco’s closest relatives, including her husband, Salvador, her father, Pedro Vargas, and her brother, Carlos Vargas.

Velasco had no children and her mother died a few years before.

Friends of the family said their hearts go out to Salvador Velasco, who first met Anna at the Fillmore High School gymnasium about 24 years ago when Fillmore residents were evacuated to the school during heavy floods. The couple just returned a few weeks ago from a two-week trip to Acapulco.

“They were very close,” said 24-year-old Lupita Castor, whose parents were the maid-of-honor and best man at the wedding of Salvador and Anna. “We all know its going to be very hard.”

Although the couple had no children, family members said Anna was close to her brother’s three children and treated her 20-year-old niece, Ingrid Aldava, like a daughter. Sitting in the front row of the church, Aldava cried throughout most of the service, with relatives reaching over to comfort her.

Despite their grief, Father Norman Supancheck urged the more than 400 mourners to view Velasco’s life as an example.

“One of the most beautiful things I heard Anna say was how much she loved to help others, how much she wanted to help others, especially the poor and the people without jobs,” the priest said. “What a beautiful thing to say about someone, that I never saw her hurt anyone, never heard her say anything bad about anyone. I would hope that would be our goal in life too.”

Times staff writer Jeff Meyers and correspondent Julie Fields contributed to this story.