Haroldine Schraeder; Community Volunteer

Longtime Ojai resident, volunteer and church member Haroldine Mary Schraeder died Sunday in Culver City after a long struggle with a brain tumor. She was 81.

Born in Laramie, Wyo., on Feb. 14, 1915, Schraeder lived for many years with her husband and three children in West Los Angeles, where she was active in the local Catholic church and for about 10 years worked for Prudential Insurance, said her daughter, Diane Raichel.

She and her husband moved to Ojai in 1974 because her husband, an avid golfer, wanted to be closer to the course where he often played, Schraeder’s daughter said.

But she ended up falling in love with the town. When her husband died in 1976, she threw herself into volunteer work, serving on the St. Thomas Aquinas Altar Society and then volunteering with the nonprofit Help of Ojai, where she worked for more than 22 years.

Marlene Spencer, the director of Help of Ojai, said Schraeder was a fixture with the Meals on Wheels senior-outreach program and was constantly involved in giving her time at the group’s service center.

“Her death is a hard one for a lot of people,” Spencer said.

At Schraeder’s 80th birthday party, the family had to limit the guest list to 125.

“It was incredible how many people she touched,” her daughter said. “She was really loved.”

Schraeder is survived by two sons, Robert of Redondo Beach and Gary of Spokane, Wash.; and her daughter of West Los Angeles.

A rosary will be recited at 7:30 p.m. today and a memorial Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Thursday, both at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Ojai. Interment will follow at Ivy Lawn Cemetery in Ventura. Donations can be made to the Little House in Ojai. Funeral arrangements are under direction of Clausen Funeral Home, Ojai.