* Bathilda Hunkele, 107; Former Motel Owner

Bathilda Hunkele has died at Mary Health of the Sick in Newbury Park at the age of 107.

Hunkele, who died Wednesday, was born Bathilda Vietti on Feb. 22, 1892, in Paris and was raised with eight brothers and sisters.

Her family moved to America in 1905, arriving through Ellis Island. They lived in New York and then New Jersey, where her father was a brass worker and her mother a pharmacist.

Bathilda went to school for a few years and married Marcel Hunkele when she was 21.

The couple owned several businesses, including a delicatessen. Working there, Hunkele soon learned to speak five languages.

In the mid-1930s, she and daughter Marcella moved to San Diego and later to Encino, where she purchased a Ventura Boulevard motel. Her husband then sold their New York businesses and moved to California.

Marcel Hunkele died in 1965, and Bathilda Hunkele lived alone in Canoga Park until she was 104. She then moved to Newbury Park, living first with her granddaughter, Cathy Newhouse, and then at Mary Health of the Sick.

Besides Newhouse, Hunkele is survived by her daughter, Marcella Johnson of Canoga Park; 10 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Viewing, followed by the rosary, is scheduled from 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday at Pierce Bros. Valley Oaks Mortuary in Westlake Village.

Mass will be said at 11 a.m. Monday at St. Julie Billiart in Newbury Park, with Father Cornelius Phelan officiating. Burial will follow at Assumption Cemetery in Simi Valley.

Arrangements are under the direction of Pierce Bros. Valley Oaks Mortuary in Westlake Village.