Phyllis Dwire; Somis Resident, Volunteer

Phyllis Dwire, a fourth-generation Somis resident, died Nov. 24 in her Somis home. She was 76.

Dwire, who was born May 13, 1919, in Somis, was the daughter of William A. and Birdie Fulkerson Culbert, who were pioneers in the Somis area. She was the great-granddaughter of William and Marietta Hughes, who homesteaded property near Somis in 1868.

Dwire attended Somis School, Oxnard Union High School, UCLA and Stanford University, where she received a master’s degree. She taught at East Bakersfield High School until 1944 when she married her high school sweetheart, Scott Dwire, then a Navy lieutenant.

They lived in Virginia, Hawaii and other areas before settling in Somis.

Dwire led Brownie and Girl Scout troops while her daughters were growing up. She served on the boards of the Somis School Mother’s Club, the Adolfo Camarillo High School Parent-Faculty Organization and AFS Chapter, the League of Women Voters, Ventura County Planned Parenthood, Friends of the Camarillo Library and Chapter RG of the P.E.O. Sisterhood .

She was also a longtime member of the Somis Thursday Club and was selected as a Dona by the Pleasant Valley Historical Society in 1989.

Dwire was also devoted to the preservation of agriculture in Ventura County. She served as secretary of the Las Posas Citizens Advisory Committee and as a member of the county Agricultural Land Trust Advisory Committee. She served as president, until her death, of the Agricultural Land Trust and Conservancy of Ventura County.

She is survived by her husband, Scott Dwire; her daughters, Janet Dwire of Alexandria, Va., Susan Dwire of Somis and Betsy Stevenson of Mount Vernon, Wash.; her sister, Betty Powell of Ventura; and her granddaughter, Cassidy Stevenson of Mount Vernon, Wash.

There were no funeral services, according to her wishes.

Memorial donations may be made to the Agricultural Land Trust and Conservancy in Saticoy.