Gregorio Gavia; Longtime Camarillo Resident

Gregorio “Don Gollo” Gavia of Camarillo, a resident of Ventura County for more than half a century, died Saturday of natural causes. He was 95.

Gavia was born May 25, 1901, in San Diego de la Union, a city in the central state of Guanajuato, Mexico.

Gavia attended school in Mexico through the sixth grade and came to Ventura County in 1945, where he picked fruit at the ranches that would one day comprise the city of Camarillo.

After a year of working in the groves, Gavia began working at the El Tecolote Restaurant in Camarillo as a bartender, a job he kept for the next 25 years. The restaurant, on Lewis Road, is now considered a local landmark.

“It was basically a job that kept him occupied,” said Toni Galvez of Fillmore, one of Gavia’s 62 grandchildren.

After retiring from his bartender job in 1971, the deeply religious Gavia opened the doors of St. Mary Magdalen Church in downtown Camarillo every morning for the next 20 years.

Gavia also enjoyed taking walks with his many descendants.

“He was in the [local newspaper] one year because they saw him walking every day,” Galvez said.

Gavia, who fathered 15 children, is survived by daughters Edith Ayala of Camarillo; Lupe Rangel of Tijuana; Aurora Lopez of Oxnard; and Imelda Ramirez, Tere Rangel, Eloisa Martinez, Elia Sayon and Guadalupe Olvera, all of Mexico City. He also leaves more than five dozen grandchildren, 75 great-grandchildren and 10 great-great-grandchildren.

Gavia was preceded in death by his wife, Antonia Mendiola, who died in 1993, and eight children.

Visitation is scheduled for today from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Pierce Brothers Griffin Mortuary, in Camarillo.

Mass is set for Wednesday at 10 a.m. at St. Mary Magdalen Church, 2532 E. Ventura Blvd., in Camarillo. Interment will follow at Santa Clara Cemetery in Oxnard.

Arrangements are under the direction of Pierce Brothers Griffin Mortuary, Camarillo.