Rosemarie Irmgard Di Simone; Homemaker

Longtime Thousand Oaks resident Rosemarie Irmgard Di Simone died Aug. 17 in Bremen, Germany, following a lengthy illness. She was 59.

Di Simone was born Jan. 28, 1939, in the former Liegnitz, Silesia, which is now land divided among Poland, Germany and Czechoslovakia.

As a young girl, Di Simone sang on German radio and also wrote three plays that were staged in small theaters, according to her family.

“She was very artistic, she loved to create,” Di Simone’s daughter, Michelle, said.

In 1957, Di Simone moved to Los Angeles and worked as a housekeeper and personal assistant in a private home. In 1962, she married and moved with her husband to Thousand Oaks to start a family.

Di Simone was a member of a classical music appreciation club in Thousand Oaks and a women’s club in Lake Arrowhead, where she and her husband had a second home, her family said. She loved to dance and enjoyed acting in community theater.

“She was a fabulous cook. She used to cater for all her friends, weddings and parties, and she always had a big open house on Christmas Eve,” Michelle Di Simone said.

Di Simone is survived by her husband, Robert J. Di Simone of Thousand Oaks; her mother, Johanna Hoefig of Bremen; three daughters, Michelle Di Simone of Thousand Oaks, Yvonne Karukas of Granada Hills, and Renee Dugan of Portland, Ore.; a sister, Helga Sander of Bremen; a brother, Volker Hoefig, of Bremen; four grandchildren; a niece and two nephews.

Di Simone was visiting her sister in Germany at the time of her death. Private services have been held, but there will be a memorial gathering for friends and family at 2 p.m. Sunday at the family’s Thousand Oaks home.

In lieu of flowers, friends are asked to make a donation to the charity of their choice or the American Cancer Society.

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Altman, James A., 53, of Ventura, engineer. Ted Mayr Funeral Home, Ventura.

Kinne , Phyllis Maude, 77, of Newbury Park, homemaker. Pierce Brothers Griffin Mortuary, Thousand Oaks.

Swartz , Ruth W., 85, of Camarillo, retired teacher. Pierce Brothers Griffin Mortuary, Camarillo.

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