Barbara Gholson; Longtime Ojai Resident

Longtime Ojai resident Barbara Erburu Gholson died Tuesday in a Santa Barbara hospital after a series of strokes. She was 77.

Gholson, a seventh-generation Californian, was born in Ventura on Dec. 20, 1920. She was baptized at the San Buenaventura Mission.

Gholson attended Holy Cross School in Ventura and graduated from the now-closed St. Catherine’s Academy in 1938. As a teen, Gholson was an avid tennis player who once qualified for the finals at the well-known Ojai Tennis Tournament, her family said.

She was the oldest of three children and spent her youth playing sports and riding horses, her family said.

She spent several semesters at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara.

During World War II, Gholson worked as an accountant on the swing shift at Shell Oil Co., in Ventura. In the late 1940s, she was a school secretary at Villanova Preparatory School in Ojai and later worked as a volunteer who taught reading at St. Thomas Aquinas Elementary School in Ojai.

Gholson is the sister of Robert Erburu, the retired chairman of the board and CEO for Times Mirror Corp., the parent company of The Los Angeles Times.

“She was very proud of him,” said Gholson’s daughter, Kathryn Hoffman. “She taught her baby brother how to read and write.”

She was a supporter of the Brothers of St. John of God at St. Joseph’s Health and Retirement Center in Ojai. Donations in her memory can be mailed to the center.

Gholson had lived since 1931 in a house once owned by her father, Michael P. Erburu, a Ventura County rancher who died in 1963. Gholson also was preceded in death by a brother, Lawrence Erburu, who was killed in World War II.

Gholson spent a lot of time with her mother, who is a 99-year-old Ojai resident.

“My grandmother is an extremely active and bright 99-year-old. My mother was around to make sure she could stay independent,” said Hoffman, of Granite Bay in Placer County.

In her free time, Gholson enjoyed watching USC football and Dodger baseball games. She also enjoyed spending time with her grandchildren.

In addition to her daughter, her mother, and her brother, Robert of Los Angeles, Gholson is survived by two grandchildren.

A rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. Friday at the chapel inside St. Joseph’s Health and Retirement Center in Ojai. Mass will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at the same chapel with interment to follow at Ivy Lawn Memorial Park in Ventura.