Eugene L. Hernandez; Warehouse Worker

Retired warehouse worker Eugene L. Hernandez, a nearly 40-year Ventura County resident, died Saturday. He was 78.

Hernandez was born June 5, 1919, in Bakersfield. He served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Hawaii during the attack on Pearl Harbor, his family said.

Hernandez married his wife, Dorothy, in 1938. They met through friends in Bakersfield.

Hernandez worked with his brother in a shoe store in Fresno before moving to Ventura in the late 1950s to manage the former Carl’s Shoe Store on Main Street, said his daughter, Linda Goodin of Oxnard.

After retiring from the shoe business, Hernandez went to work as a forklift operator in a warehouse at the Port Hueneme Seabee base.

Hernandez enjoyed spending time at the beach and collecting baseball cards and coins, Goodin said. He was a member of the Victory Outreach Church in Oxnard.

“He was an excellent father, because whenever anybody needed something he was always there. If we had a problem, he would sit and talk with us and give us advice,” Goodin said.

In addition to Goodin and his wife, Hernandez is survived by two sons, Eugene Jr. of Oxnard and Michael of Oxnard; two other daughters, Margaret Ramirez of Santa Ana, and Stella Michel of Oxnard; 22 grandchildren; 29 great grandchildren, and a great-great granddaughter.

Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday at the Joseph P. Reardon Funeral Home in Ventura. Services will be held at 1 p.m. Friday at the Joseph P. Reardon Funeral Home in Ventura, with burial to follow at Ventura’s Ivy Lawn Memorial Park.