By George Miller
See commendation, below….
If the items in the City Council commendation weren’t enough by themselves to be noteworthy, her son Dean Maulhardt, added to the list.
When I asked him about her, the first words out of his mouth were “she’s the perfect mother.” Maulhardt looked back fondly on his years at the 300 acre Maulhardt family farm, which at that time was outside the city limits, with an additional 500 acres in Santa Rosa Valley, Camarillo.. It’s down to just a few acres now and is the Oxnard Historic Farm Park at 1251 Gottfried Place, Oxnard, CA.
Mrs. Maulhardt married into the family to Richard Maulhardt, Sr., in 1945 and lived at the farm starting in 1947, for many years. The farm had been in the family’s hands since the 1860’s. Ms. Maulhardt, née Baker, was born and raised in Ventura and even served as City Clerk there during the WWII era. She also had a flower shop and still especially loves orchids.
The farm produced crops such as avocados, lemons, strawberries, celery and spinach. They were assisted mostly by local workers and some migrants. He remembers that way back, dust bowl migrants worked there.He said they also employed workers under the Bracero program.
He described her primary occupation as “housewife.” She had 5 children, 15 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren. However, she also volunteered at the local elementary school, various charities and is a big promoter of the Strawberry Festival.
Dean said that his Dad and Mom loved to travel and visited about 170 countries all over, They particularly enjoyed traveling the world, to ports and towns, by ocean freighters. They loved to visit Africa and Asia. They would hire drivers to take them around exploring. They also did multiple European trips. Dean noted that President Eisenhower ( a previous article said the CA Governor) sent Mr. Maulhardt Sr. to the USSR on a farm tour. He wasn’t permitted to take Ms. Maulhardt there, so they met afterwards neat the Soviet border,.
He said she had been very supportive of him in his years on the City Council (1994-2010).
She’s still alert, healthy, still gets around, with the aid of a walker or wheelchair.
George Miller is Publisher/Co-Founder of CitizensJournal.us and a “retired” operations management consultant residing in Oxnard.
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