Obituaries : * Janine H. Sacks; Times Writer, Editor

Janine H. Sacks, a special sections writer and editor at the Los Angeles Times Ventura County Edition, died at her Agoura Hills home Tuesday after a seven-month battle with cancer. She was 54.

Mrs. Sacks was born in Germany and moved to the United States in 1960, her husband, Norman, said.

“She was a real immigrant,” Norman said. “She arrived here with a suitcase and $40 in her hand.”

Norman and Janine met at Will Rogers Beach after he allowed his Sunday paper purposely to blow her way, he said. They were married in 1961.

After raising a son and daughter, Mrs. Sacks decided to embark on a journalism career at the age of 40.

“She was either going to be a journalist or a veterinarian,” her husband said. “We figured it would be faster to become a journalist.”

She graduated magna cum laude from Cal State Northridge in 1986 and went to work for the Simi Valley Enterprise. She also worked for the Daily News of Los Angeles before joining The Times in 1990.

She is survived by a daughter, Jacqueline Sacks of Canoga Park; and son, Jason Sacks, 26, of Los Angeles.

Services are scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday at Pierce Brothers Mortuary in Westlake Village.