* Myriel French; Former School District Secretary

Myriel S. French, a retired secretary and former dental assistant, died Saturday at her Newbury Park home after a brief illness. She was 79.

She was born April 5, 1921, in Oakland and graduated from Golden Gate Academy in 1938. She later studied secretarial courses at Armstrong Business College in the East Bay.

She married William S. French on Sept. 27, 1942, and the couple moved to Ventura County about seven years later.

The mother of three children, French was an active leader in the Home and School Assn. at Linda Vista Junior Academy in Oxnard. She also was an accomplished vocalist who performed in the light opera in the Bay Area and was a frequent soloist at area churches in Oxnard and at her own church choir at the Oxnard Seventh-day Adventist Church.

During the 1960s, she was employed as an executive secretary at the Oxnard Union High School District offices and later worked as a dental assistant at her husband’s dental office. She also worked as the pastor’s secretary at the Oxnard Seventh-day Adventist Church and was an executive secretary at the Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Westlake Village before she retired in May 1988.

Her husband died earlier this year.

She is survived by sons Chip of Westlake Village and Robert of Truckee; daughter Mary Moseanko of Butte, N.D.; and six grandchildren.

Visitation and viewing for family and friends will be from 6 to 8 p.m. today at Pierce Bros. Griffin Mortuary in Camarillo, which is handling the arrangements.

A memorial service is scheduled at 2 p.m. Friday at the Camarillo Seventh-day Adventist Church.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in her memory to the Worthy Student Fund of Newbury Park Academy, 180 Academy Drive, Newbury Park, CA 91320.