Venerina M. Cignetti; Retired Business Owner

Longtime Ventura resident Venerina M. Cignetti died Thursday after a brief illness. She was 79.

Cignetti was born Feb. 14, 1919, in Benld, Ill. She married Peter Cignetti in 1939 and moved with him to Suisun City in Northern California during World War II.

In Suisun City, Cignetti worked as an electrician’s helper and her husband was a welder. The couple also ran a dance club and tavern.

In 1947, Cignetti and her family moved to Ventura. In 1956, Cignetti, her husband and two brothers started working at Avenue Bowl in Ventura, a business they eventually bought, her family said.

She also worked for more than 20 years as a clerk in Ventura County’s Municipal Court, a job she retired from in 1981. Cignetti’s family has run The Bench Warmer, a cocktail lounge on Main Street in Ventura, for more than 20 years.

Cignetti was a member of the Bowling Proprietors Assn. and the Ventura County Bowling Assn. and was a longtime member of the Italian Catholic Federation.

Her husband died in 1962.

“Everbody liked her and she liked everybody,” said Cignetti’s daughter, Janet Colman of Ventura.

In addition to her daughter, Cignetti is survived by her son, Peter Cignetti of Ventura; three grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.

Visitation is planned from 2 to 7 p.m. Sunday at the Joseph P. Reardon Funeral Home in Ventura.

Services will be held at 11:30 a.m. Monday at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Ventura.

Interment will follow at Ivy Lawn Memorial Park in Ventura.