Obituary : * O. Andrea Giltner; Longtime Ojai Resident

O. Andrea Giltner, a 31-year Ojai resident, died Wednesday at Ojai Hospital’s Skilled Nursing Unit, where she lived for the last three years after breaking a hip. She was 96.

Giltner was born March 17, 1899, in Norway. She came to Ventura County from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and also lived in Tripoli, Libya, and London. A homemaker, she was married for 20 years to her third husband, Lou W. Giltner, a naval civil engineer whom she followed around the globe, according to her granddaughter, Dianne Hicks. Lou Giltner died in 1975.

“She was a lovely person,” Hicks said. “The people at the skilled nursing [unit] called her ‘honeybun.’ She was one of the people they loved very much.”

Proud of her Norwegian heritage, Giltner and her granddaughter and great-grandchildren visited Norway for seven weeks in 1984. Her family there never forgot the care packages she sent during World War II, Hicks said.

“She was the belle of the ball,” she said. “Everybody treated her like a princess.”

Giltner is survived by a stepson, Wallace Giltner of San Clemente; grandsons Gary Larson of Ventura and Rick Larson of San Rafael; Dianne Hicks of Woodside, and seven great grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her daughter, Vivienne Larson, in 1993.

A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Monday at Clausen Funeral Home, Ojai, with the Rev. Leonard DeWitt officiating. Internment will be at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Arthritis Foundation.

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