Irene L. Bucholtz, Newbury Park Homemaker

Irene L. Bucholtz of Newbury Park, a homemaker and 23-year resident of Ventura County, died Saturday at her home following a brief illness. She was 57.

Bucholtz was born April 20, 1939, in Buffalo, N.Y. Her former husband, Ron Bucholtz, of San Ramon said it was a shared hometown that brought them together.

“We both are from Buffalo, and we were married back in 1961 in Buffalo,” he said. “We moved to California in 1974 and settled in Thousand Oaks.”

Upon arriving in Ventura County, Irene Bucholtz took a job as a secretary at the Thousand Oaks News Chronicle.

Irene Bucholtz was involved with sewing, arts and crafts, and gardening, said her former husband. “She enjoyed travel, and made frequent trips to visit her sister in Europe and her remaining relatives in Germany,” he said. “She was always fun-loving.”

Her parents were natives of Munich, Germany, and both became American citizens. Her father, Carl Muhlhausser and her mother, Bertha, each died in the late 1970s and were interred in the Claus Koppen Berger Cemetery in Munich. Bucholtz will be laid to rest near her parents.

She is survived by a sister, Susan Lemke, of Paris, France; a son, Robert Bucholtz of Newbury Park; a daughter, Lisa Esposito of Cary, N.C., and three grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. today at Pierce Brothers Griffin Chapel, Thousand Oaks.