Marjorie Ann Lundstrom

Marjorie Ann Lundstrom passed away peacefully of respiratory failure the evening of Jan. 7, 2016 after a brief stay at Bella Mar Assisted Living in Santa Monica.

Born in Santa Monica on Nov. 21, 1930 to Donald McRae and Marjorie Barnett McRae, she was proud to be a third generation Native Californian.

She grew up in Los Angeles County, near Venice Beach, where, as a young girl, her mother taught her to swim and bodysurf, thus beginning her life-long love of the ocean.  Before she was 1, her parents divorced and remarried. Margie was given the last name of her stepfather, Douglas Sadler.

She attended Culver City Elementary and graduated from Hamilton High School, class of 1949, as “The girl you’d want to be on a deserted island with.” She briefly attended Los Angeles City College before marrying Rod Lundstrom in 1950. They lived on Swarthmore Avenue with their three daughters until a move in 1965 to Marquez Knolls.

As a teen, Margie worked at Bullock’s Department Store in Westwood. In 1965 she trained on the job as a medical assistant to Drs. Snodgrass, Thee and Haynes at their practice in Santa Monica for 25 years.

In 1959, Margie and three friends started the first Dodgers Baseball Fan Club after the team moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958. Her daughters remember many summers at the beach hearing Vin Scully’s voice on her transistor radio.

In 1962, she was one of eight founding members of Las Doradas, creative women from the Palisades who combined their talents to raise funds for disadvantaged youth in the Venice area. Margie served five terms as president.

To this day, the Las Doradas Learning Center and the Neighborhood Youth Association in Venice, California still benefit from their efforts.  Upon semiretirement, she enjoyed working at the Palisades Toy Store on Swarthmore Ave.

Margie loved traveling, renaissance fairs, otters, the ocean and sea turtles. She was cremated and her ashes were delivered to the sea off the coast of Los Angeles County on Feb. 12, 2016.

Missed by longtime friends and loving family, she is survived by her three daughters, Layne, Leslie and Lorrie; four grandchildren, Shannon Moody, Devin and Leah Matloff and Leslie Hopkins; as well as two great grandchildren, Tyler and Carly Moody.

In her memory, please consider a donation to The Monterey Bay Aquarium or Las Doradas (Box 582, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272).