Hazel Keen Outland; Retired Store Manager

* Hazel Keene Outland, a retired store manager, died Saturday at Santa Paula Memorial Hospital. She was 79.

Born in a small town in Kentucky on July 20, 1921, she moved with her parents and brother to Santa Paula as a small child.

She attended Briggs School and Santa Paula High School and later graduated from Fillmore High School. She attended the First Christian Church in Santa Paula, where she played the piano for services and became the recording secretary.

For more than 40 years, she worked in retail businesses on Main Street in Santa Paula. She worked for the Rose Garden shop, which became the Campus shop, where she was the manager for many years. She also managed the men’s department at J.C. Penney during the 1950s and ‘60s.

Outland was a member of the Women’s Business and Professional Assn., the Ebell Club of Santa Paula, for which she also had been president, and the Santa Clara Valley Hospice. She made many bright and cheery hospital gowns and robes for the hospice.

She enjoyed watching tennis and basketball on television and loved working in her rose garden. She was a volunteer at the hospital’s rose garden and enjoyed spending time pruning and caring for the roses with her friends.

She is survived by daughter Jowanna Gosselin, son Mike Kennedy, three grandchildren and one great-grandson.

A graveside service is scheduled at 10 a.m. today at the Santa Paula Cemetery.

Arrangements are under the direction of Pierce Bros. Stetler Mortuary in Santa Paula.