* Mimi Lucking; Ventura County Arts Supporter

Mimi Lucking--an interior designer, former Santa Paula school board member and longtime Ventura County supporter of the arts--has died of cancer. She was 56.

In addition to serving on the Santa Paula Elementary School District for five years, Lucking was an active fund-raiser for the former Ventura Symphony and the Carnegie Arts Museum in Oxnard.

Born Marycarolyn Linda Elizabeth Hawkins in Philadelphia on April 12, 1940, Lucking spent her childhood in Swarthmore, a small town outside the city. After graduating from Swarthmore High School in 1958, Lucking enrolled in the Moore College of Art in Philadelphia.

She graduated in 1962 with a teaching certificate and a bachelor’s degree in art.

On her way to study Oriental art history at the graduate level in Miami, Fla., she met her husband at a party at UCLA.

After spending a year in Miami, Lucking returned to Los Angeles and on June 19, 1965, married Bill Lucking.

“She left, I wrote a lot of silly letters and then she came back and we got married,” Bill Lucking recalled. “She was my best friend, pal, lover, mother of my kids, and all the rest of it is pretty unimportant.”

After marrying, the couple moved to Pasadena for two years before returning to Los Angeles to start their family.

In 1970, they moved to Santa Paula where Lucking raised her two daughters and served as a substitute teacher before she was elected to the Santa Paula school board in 1983.

While Lucking was in office, the district set higher academic standards, restructured the system and introduced five magnet schools.

“She just wanted good basic education for kids, good teachers and good administrators, and she fought for them,” said Janet Grant, president of the Santa Paula School Board.

Lucking also ran her own interior design business and for a time operated an art gallery in Ventura called Pacific Rim.

She also served on the National Charity League and was president of the Design House, a fund-raising arm for the Ventura County and now the New West symphony.

In recent years, Lucking helped establish a gift store at the Carnegie Art Museum in Oxnard to raise funds for the fine arts collection.

In addition to her husband, Lucking is survived by her daughters Marjet and Juliana and her father, W.B. Hawkins, all of Santa Paula.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Presbyterian Church in Santa Paula.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Santa Clara Valley Hospice of Santa Paula or the American Cancer Society.