Marcee Beth Mandler; AIDS Victim, Activist

Marcee Beth Mandler, a Thousand Oaks High School graduate of 1983, has died of AIDS after a seven-year battle. She was 30.

She contracted the HIV virus that causes the disease through unprotected sex when she was in her early 20s, said her father, Ed Mandler of Thousand Oaks.

“Young people are oblivious about AIDS,” he said. “They think they are immortal.”

His advice to parents: “Preach to your kids. Educate them. Teach them about AIDS.”

Mandler said his daughter also wanted to teach people about AIDS and its transmission.

“She knew what her condition was, but she didn’t just fold up and wait,” he said. “She tried to tell people and inform them.”

Born June 9, 1965, she worked as a hair stylist in Thousand Oaks for several years before moving to Sacramento to be near her sister in the late 1980s. When she became ill last year, she returned to Southern California to live with her mother in North Hollywood.

After her mother, Hinda Burtoli moved to Las Vegas in early June, she moved to a Tarzana treatment center.

Although she never married or had children of her own, Marcee loved children, her father said.

“She even studied to become a nanny,” he said. She did not pursue the career because she became ill.

When her sister celebrated her daughter’s second birthday shortly before Marcee died, she was delighted.

“It was almost as if it were her child,” Mandler said.

She is survived by her parents and stepmother Judy Mandler of Thousand Oaks; grandmother Jean Mandler of Sherman Oaks; sister Francee Evans of Sacramento; brothers Daniel Mensch of Sacramento and Erik Mensch of North Carolina, and stepbrother Adam Levy of Oakland.

Services are planned at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Mortuary.

Ventura County obituaries are published free of charge as a public service to readers. Obituaries are based on information provided by mortuaries.