Rosemary F. Cresto; Nurse for 50 Years

Rosemary F. Cresto, a nurse and longtime Ventura resident, has died after a long battle with cancer.

Cresto died Thursday at age 69 of multiple myeloma.

Cresto, whose nursing career spanned 50 years, dedicated her life to the profession. Since becoming a registered nurse in 1947, she had practiced a range of nursing from emergency to private care, while raising seven children.

Born Oct. 17, 1926, in Can~on City, Colo., Cresto spent the first half of her life in her home state. After graduating in 1944 from St. Scholastica Academy in Can~on City, she immediately entered a three-year military nursing program.

After graduating as a registered nurse in 1947, she began working at St. Thomas Moore Hospital in Can~on City.

Shortly afterward, she met her husband at a New Year’s Eve dance in 1948. They were married nine months later and moved three times within Colorado before moving to Ventura in 1958.

Cresto continued her nursing career at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura and worked in various local hospitals before accepting a position as director of nursing at the Ventura Convalescent Hospital. She also taught nursing in the adult education program of the Ventura Unified School District from 1976 to 1979.

In addition to raising her family, Cresto was active in her church and community. She was a Eucharistic minister at Our Lady of the Assumption Church and served in several altar and rosary societies at various church parishes. She was also active in a program run by St. Anne’s Guild to aid single mothers.

While still living in Colorado, she was elected as a regent and Colorado state officer of the Daughters of Isabella, a sister organization to the Knights of Columbus. She had also served as chapter president of Epsilon Sigma Alpha, a business and professional women’s sorority in Can~on City.

In her spare time she liked to read and travel. She had traveled in Europe, Alaska and the Caribbean.

She is survived by her husband, Peter, of Ventura; a daughter, Kathleen of Yorktown, Va.; six sons, David of Oak View, Peter and Michael of Ventura, and Joseph, Timothy and Mark of San Diego; two sisters, Ann Sticka of San Diego and Bernice Glauth of Woodland Park, Colo.; a brother, Anthony Merlino, of Can~on City; and 16 grandchildren.

Rosary will be recited at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Ventura. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Burial will follow at Ivy Lawn Park in Ventura.

Arrangements are under the direction of the Joseph P. Reardon Funeral Home in Ventura. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the International Myeloma Foundation.

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