* Roberta E. M. Harthorn; Survived Dam Disaster

Roberta Eleen McFadden Harthorn, a homemaker, died Tuesday in Ventura with her children at her side. She was 75.

She was born on July 3, 1924, in Los Angeles to Harold A. and Winifred Redmond McFadden, and was raised on the family’s citrus ranch in Bardsdale.

She was a survivor of the St. Francis Dam disaster in 1928. Her parents carried her and her younger sister Genelle through rising water to higher ground at a neighbor’s home.

She grew up in Bardsdale and attended Bardsdale School. She graduated from Fillmore High School in 1942.

On Jan. 7, 1945, she married her high school sweetheart, Wayne Allen Harthorn of Fillmore.

Two years later, she graduated from San Jose State College with a major in home economics.

Her husband worked for Shell Oil and Vetco Offshore Industries. The couple traveled throughout the world with their four children. They lived in several Western states, as well as Canada, Switzerland and Singapore.

Harthorn was a lifelong member and past president of the Garden Club in Bardsdale. She was a member of the Bardsdale Methodist Church, where she learned to play the piano. Family members said that she took great pleasure in the instrument and imparting her love of music to her children and grandchildren. She was also an excellent cook and seamstress.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Wayne, and her brother, Harold McFadden of Ventura.

In addition to her sister, Genelle Perkins, she is survived by daughters DeLayne Harthorn and Candace Dugan; sons Allen and Roy; and five grandchildren, all of Ventura County.

Visitation is scheduled from 3 to 8 p.m. Sunday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday at the Charles Carroll Funeral Home in Ventura.

Services are scheduled at noon Tuesday at Bardsdale Methodist Church. Interment will follow at Bardsdale Cemetery. A reception will be held at her home.

Arrangements are under the direction of the Charles Carroll Funeral Home.