Charlotte Barker

We are sad to announce the passing of Charlotte Barker on Oct. 17, 2012, at the age of 92.

Barker was born in 1920 in Minnesota.  In the 1940s, she moved to Los Angeles, where she worked for Craig Corporation and where she also met her husband, Roy.

After vacationing in Laguna Beach for many years, Barker and her husband decided to move to the town in 1974, where she became the manager for the Dolphin Apartments in North Laguna for over 25 years. After retiring at the age of 80 and moving to Arizona, Barker decided in 2010 to return to Laguna and to the apartment complex that she knew and loved so much.

Barker was well loved at the apartment community, and was remembered as a woman of character, integrity, and hard work. Though the town was under evacuation, she refused to leave during the fire of 1993, but remained instead at the complex to care for an elderly tenant who needed assistance and could not move well. And even at the age of 80, Barker  would frequently be seen on top of a ladder cleaning a vacated apartment or outside doing yard work.

Barker is survived by her sister, Lois, and dozens of nieces and nephews.  She will be truly missed by all the residents of the Dolphin Apartments, and by the Russell Family for whom she worked since the mid-1970s, and who loved her as though she were part of their extended family.