Long-time resident was an advocate for unincorporated community

SANTA NELLA – For the better part of 30 years, Virginia LaMoureaux was proud to stand tall in her support of Santa Nella, the community she quickly grew to love but recently had to leave.

Whether jumping into a patrol car to work a shift as a sheriff’s department volunteer, rolling up her sleeves to take on the county over an issue important to the community or helping plan its future, LaMoureaux has been one of Santa Nella’s central figures for three decades.

In an unincorporated community, with no elected local leadership to champion important issues, the 83-year-old retiree was in many ways the voice of Santa Nella before recently moving to Merced to live with a daughter.

Recently, Santa Nella said thank you to its most well-known community activist.

Friends, family members and community leaders gathered to honor LaMoureaux at a Santa Nella Chamber of Commerce meeting.....a fitting venue, since she served on the chamber board for some 20 years.

Among those on hand to present her with recognitions were County Supervisor Jerry O’Banion, local water district manager Dennis Moniz, Sheriff Mark Pazin and Chamber President Mark Dudys.

LaMoureaux moved from Delhi to Santa Nella in 1976, and quickly fell in love with her new home.

At the time, she recalled, Santa Nella had little more than a truck stop, a Denny’s and a bar.

Making matters worse, she said, county government often overlooked the isolated community – which she soon set about to change.

“Things were not as they should have been, because the West Side of the county was being ignored. When we weren’t getting the representation we thought we should have, I got involved,” LaMoureaux told Mattos Newspapers. “I got involved the year after I moved there, and it never stopped.”

Through the years, Santa Nella became a well-known commercial center and stopping-off point for Interstate 5 drivers.

Houses joined the mobile homes that served as the only Santa Nella residences for a good many years.

And all along the way, LaMoureaux continued in her role as Santa Nella’s foremost community advocate.

“We just wanted the keep the things coming in to be good things for Santa Nella,” she reflected. “We would work through the chamber and the county to address problems. Sometimes it was state people we needed to reach.”

One of her accomplishments was leading the campaign to save Santa Nella’s small branch library when it was slated for closure as part of cost-cutting moves by the cash-strapped county.

She was not always victorious, though.

LaMoureaux laments a zoning change that went through, allowing home construction in an area originally designated for an expansion of the mobile home park.

“I don’t think that was compatible,” she explained. “That is the only drastic thing that we have not been able to stop.”

One of the activities particularly dear to LaMoureaux was serving as a sheriff’s department volunteer for a dozen years. In that role, she patrolled the community in a squad car to protect the residents and the businesses.

Her involvement with the chamber was also a special part of her time in Santa Nella.

“I am very proud of the years I spent as a volunteer with the sheriff’s department, and of the people I worked with at the chamber, especially Mark Dudys,” she reflected. “He is so devoted. When he is involved, he wants to do it right also.”

She was also instrumental in founding a homeowners association for the Santa Nella Village in 1977, and served on the committee which developed an urban development plan for the community.

Dudys praised the former chamber director and long-time community advocate, saying she was the driving force in many projects and campaigns geared toward the betterment of Santa Nella.

LaMoureaux still keeps close ties to the community, where two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren live.

She had planned to live the rest of her life in Santa Nella, LaMoureaux reflected, but declining health dictated otherwise.

“I loved Santa Nella from the time I first moved there. I was heartbroken when I realized I had to leave,” said LaMoureaux, who has a son buried in the nearby veteran’s cemetery. “I said I was going to live there the rest of my life, but you don’t always have a choice.”