Paul J. Yanez; Butcher and Meatpacking Foreman

Paul J. Yanez, a former meatpacking foreman and descendant of one of the earliest Spanish settlers in Ventura County, has died after a bout with pneumonia. He was 89.

Born on a ranch in Santa Paula, Yanez grew up on the Hobson Ranch in Alison Canyon east of Ventura where his father was the manager. He attended school in Saticoy through the eighth grade, and at the age of 18 he went to work at the Hobson Brothers Packing Plant in Ventura, first as a truck driver and then as a butcher.

The same year, Yanez married Erma Sanford, who lived in Saticoy.

The couple later moved to Oakland and Hollister, where Yanez continued to work as a butcher. About 1950, the family returned to Ventura County and Yanez resumed working at the Hobson Brothers Packing Plant.

In recent months, he had lived at a nursing home in Oak View.

“He loved this county and he loved the (Hobson) ranch,” said Yanez’s daughter, Pauline Perona. “He wanted to die on the ranch and he almost made it.”

The Yanez family’s history in Ventura County dates back to 1792 when one of their ancestors, a Spanish soldier, accompanied Father Junipero Serra when he founded the San Buenaventura Mission.

He is survived by two daughters, Perona of Richmond and Barbara Yanez-Wells of Gilroy; two sons, Paul Yanez of Belfair, Wash., and Dwight Yanez of Pismo Beach; a brother, Ray Yanez of Santa Paula and three sisters, Cora Root and Carmelita Delariva of Ventura and Olivia Miranda of Grandview, Mo. He is also survived by 27 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements are being handled by Clausen Funeral Home in Ojai.