Julia Ann Schuetz; Nurse, Volunteer

Julia Ann Schuetz of Ventura, a licensed vocational nurse who focused on providing care for children, died Oct. 31 in an Oxnard hospital following a brief illness. She was 62.

One of 11 children, Schuetz was born June 16, 1934, in Dorchester, Mass. She grew up in Massachusetts and married Charles Teed at the age of 17. They later divorced and Schuetz was married a second time, to Emilio Disangro. Those marriages produced four children.

Schuetz, who later was divorced from Disangro, was diagnosed with breast cancer and at the age of 48 had a mastectomy. “The amazing thing about it is that it was self-detected,” said her daughter, Margo Anderson of Oxnard. “She had it, she dealt with it and it never came back.

“When she had breast cancer and survived it, she knew she wanted to go into care-giving,” Anderson said. Schuetz began by caring for the elderly, but in 1982 she opened her own nanny service, taking care of children.

She continued working as a nanny when she moved to Santa Barbara in 1989, watching over the children of wealthy families in Montecito, Anderson said.

In 1990, she married William Schuetz, at the time a manager with the Delco division of General Motors. They both retired in 1991. After retirement, Schuetz and her husband vacationed in Hawaii and Florida.

During the past 12 months, Schuetz volunteered for the Ventura Police Department, taking pictures with the roving clowns during the department’s open house and giving tours of the police station. “This past year, she really got into volunteering,” Anderson said.

Schuetz and her husband were sportfishing enthusiasts. During a private ceremony at sea Saturday, Schuetz’s ashes will be scattered from one of her favorite sportfishing boats, the Lenbrook, out of Ventura Harbor.

In addition to her daughter and husband, she is survived by daughter Kathleen Foley of Fitchburg, Mass.; sons Charles Teed of Boston and Paul Disangro of Washington, D.C.; stepdaughters Mary and Veronica Schuetz, both of Santa Barbara; sisters Pat Barbati of Randolph, Mass., Margaret Pace of Lincoln, Mass., Jane Lehan of Malden, Mass., Bridgett Kuptzewitz of Huntington, N. Y., and Eileen Ford of North Dakota; brothers William Ford of Key Largo, Fla., Tom Ford of Philadelphia, John Ford of Chelsea, Mass., and Toby Ford of Louisiana, and one granddaughter.

Schuetz was preceded in death in 1992, by her sister, Mary Boucher.

Arrangements are under the direction of Guardian Memorial Funeral Directors in Oxnard.