Lillian Morrison; Former Market Co-Owner

Lillian “Birdie” Morrison, former co-owner of Oakdale Market, volunteer and longtime Thousand Oaks resident, died Friday in Moorpark. She was 91.

She was born Lillian Diggins on Jan. 10, 1909, in Norwich, Ontario, Canada, and later moved to Detroit, where she met her future husband, Norman Morrison. The couple married in 1929.

They moved to Los Angeles shortly after their marriage and settled in Thousand Oaks in 1937 with their son, Bob.

They bought the Oakdale Dance Hall and Gas Station and were soon asked by the sheriff to try to stop some of the fights among patrons at the saloon. Six months later, they converted it into Oakdale Market, with a post office in one corner of it.

Believed to be the oldest business in Thousand Oaks, the market was also a Greyhound bus stop.

In 1944, the couple sold the market and moved across the street to a liquor store they owned. Norman Morrison was the postmaster for 33 years before retiring, and Birdie Morrison continued to work at the market and post office.

She was active in the American Cancer Society and a volunteer at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks.

After her husband’s death in 1990, she moved to Castle Hill Retirement Village in Thousand Oaks, where her favorite pastimes were jigsaw puzzles and card games with her friends. She also enjoyed feeding birds in the area and had several feeders. Her son said as many as 200 birds visited the feeders.

In addition to her son, she is survived by three grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

A memorial service is scheduled at 11 a.m. today at Pierce Bros. Griffin Mortuary Chapel in Thousand Oaks.

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Arrangements are under the direction of Pierce Bros. Griffin Mortuary in Thousand Oaks.