* Mary A. Pichotta; 27-Year Ventura Resident

Mary A. Pichotta, a Ventura homemaker, died Wednesday. She was 76.

She was born Aug. 25, 1923, in Ulysses, Neb., where she attended school and spent her childhood.

She moved to Sun Valley when she was 18. Two years later, she married Nicholas Pichotta and the couple raised their family in the San Fernando Valley.

The couple moved to Ventura in 1972 and she became active with the Camp Club at the Poinsettia Gardens in Ventura. She also enjoyed craft making. Her daughter, Jeannette Madsen, said her mother painted ceramics and other special items for her grandchildren.

Pichotta was a member of Sacred Heart parish in Ventura.

In addition to Madsen, of Panorama City, Pichotta is survived by daughter Susan Feist of Los Angeles; sons Anthony of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, Thomas of Agoura, Nicholas of San Francisco, Raymond of Columbia, Tenn., Paul of Alaska, and Robert of Reno; brothers Thomas Harvey of Hays, Kan., and Wayne Harvey of Lincoln, Neb.; half-sisters Janet McGinnis of Florida and Janis Faulconer of Lee Summit, Mont.; and stepmother Myrtle Harvey Weston of Lee Summit; 23 grandchildren and one great-grandson.

Pichotta was preceded in death three months ago by her husband of 56 years and earlier by a son, James.

Donations can be made in her name to Sacred Heart parish.

Recitation of the Rosary is scheduled at 7 tonight at Joseph P. Reardon Funeral Home in Ventura.

Services are scheduled at 11 a.m. Saturday at Sacred Heart Church, with Father Daniel O’Sullivan officiating. Burial will follow at Santa Clara Cemetery in Oxnard.