Obituaries : * Teresa Kaye Wood; Executive Assistant

Teresa Kaye Wood of Thousand Oaks, an executive assistant and mother of three, died Wednesday after a brief illness. She was 36.

Born in Omaha, Neb., in 1959, Wood moved to Norco, Calif., when she was 5. Wood was a skilled skier and equestrian and won many awards with the American Quarter Horse Assn. Wood graduated from Norco High School in 1977.

After attending college in Wyoming, she met Thomas A. Wood and the two were married in 1978. The couple lived in Orange County and started a family. Teresa Wood, who worked for Rockwell, had also worked for Fluor-Daniel Inc.

But Greta Morris, Wood’s grandmother, said Wood’s first love was her children.

“She was a wonderful mother,” said Morris, a retired county clerk. “She provided those kids with a home of love and security. She was tops.”

Wood, who moved to Thousand Oaks about five years ago, also spent time pursuing arts and crafts including needlepoint and floral arrangements.

“She was a multitalented person,” said Morris, 73. “She could do so many things.”

In addition to her husband and Morris, Teresa Wood is survived by her children Kathrine, Robert and Sean of Thousand Oaks; her sister, Kelli Jean Morris of Los Angeles; her father, Roger Howard Morris of Santa Ana; her mother, Judy Ryan of Corona; her uncle, Del R. Kelly of La Habra; aunts Carol Kelly of La Habra, Linda Janke of Huntington Beach, Marjean Richmond of Des Moines, Iowa, and her grandfather, Howard Morris of Wayne, Neb.

A “Celebration of Her Life” service is planned for 11 a.m. today at Oakwood Memorial Park Chapel in Chatsworth. Arrangements are under the direction of Guardian Memorial Funeral Directors in Oxnard.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that memorial donations be made in Wood’s memory to the UCLA Cancer Research Center, care of Genetic Research, UCLA Medical Center, 10833 Le Conte Ave., Los Angeles 90024.