Obituaries : * Bernice M. Viehman; Local Nurse for 30 Years

Bernice M. Viehman, a nurse at Community Memorial Hospital for 30 years, has died following a brief illness. She was 83.

Born in Minneota, Minn., she had lived in Ventura for 50 years. A registered nurse, she retired from Community Memorial in the mid-1970s as a charge nurse for three floors at the hospital, said her daughter, Claudia Walter.

She was an active and longtime member of the First United Methodist Church of Ventura, and was a founding member of the Assn. for Retarded Children of Ventura County. An avid reader, she also enjoyed crocheting and knitting.

“One of the first things I remember is being little and listening to her read to me,” her daughter said. “Reading was so intrinsic to her and so important to her. . . . I will always remember her reading to me. It was safe and secure and wonderful.”

Walter said her mother was, for many years, president of the Assn. for Retarded Children in Ventura, along with serving as president of the PTA and being involved in numerous other activities.

“Mom spent so much of her time just doing for other people,” Walter said. “To me, she was wonderful. Here was this working mother, who was the president of the PTA. . . . She would sew the beads on my Girl Scouts jacket. It was kind of like how I feel now as a working mother, but she was doing this 30 or 40 years ago.”

Preceded in death by her husband, Ralph Viehman, in 1983, Bernice Viehman is survived by her daughter, Claudia, her son-in-law and one granddaughter.

Services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday, at the Ivy Lawn Cemetery Mausoleum chapel, Ventura. The Rev. Neal Keller of the First United Methodist Church will officiate.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Assn. for Retarded Citizens of Ventura County, 1732 S. Lewis Road, Camarillo, CA., 93010.