Dates

• Existence: 1894 - 1984

Virginia Rose Smith [1984-04-27 obituary]

Virginia Rose Smith 1894-1984

A memorial service is pending for Virginia Rose Smith, 89, longtime local designer and dollmaker, who died Thursday at a Los Angeles hospital after along illness.

Miss Smith, who lived at 1394 Danielson Road, was born Oct. 30, 1894, in Goleta, a descendant of the pioneer Kellogg family of the area. Self-educated, she was a talented designer and seamstress who produced costumes and sets for the Lobero Theater in the 1920s and costumes for New York theater productions in the 1930s. She was particularly well known locally for exquisitely costumed original dolls, which she continued creating in the 1980s.

She also was an interior decorater here in the 1940s and 1950s, and taught the subject at the former Santa Barbara State College. She also was a poet, editing and publishing a volume titled "This Wine So Rare" and an anthology of local writers, "Wild Grape Brew."

She was a member of the Chaparal Poets, Strollers Club and Goleta Valley Historical Society, and was instrumental in having the Goleta Depot, building donated to the society.

Survivors include a sister, Dorothy Shoemaker of Ventura ; a brother, Floyd Smith of Los Angeles; and a nephew, former local state Assemblyman Winfield Shoemaker of Fort Bragg.

Memorial donations may be made to the Goleta Valley Historical Society.

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