Cindy Frazier, city editor of the Coastline Pilot newspaper since 2005, died this past Wednesday after struggling more than a year with pancreatic cancer. She was 60.
“She was sure tough, determined to get better,” said Anne Johnson, a city planning commissioner, who in recent months provided a ride to Frazier’s spouse, Sharon Gretsch, visiting in a Fountain Valley hospital.
“She was the consummate poker player; you never knew where she stood,” said Johnson, paying Frazier the ultimate professional complement.
On her birthday, June 15, friends brought an iPad, flowers and balloons to her at Saddleback Memorial Hospital. “She said it was the best present she ever had since a little red bike when she was little,” said Chris Mattingley, an advertising sales rep for the paper. “She wanted it to write a novel when she got out of the hospital. She thought she could lick it,” said Mattingley, describing Frazier’s unflinching courage and positive attitude.
Frazier, born in Westlake, Ohio, graduated from Vermont’s Bennington College in 1975. She earned a second degree from Cal State Northridge. Frazier worked at a Long Island, N.Y., weekly newspaper before moving to California where she held news positions at three publications before being hired by Times Community News.
Besides Gretsch, she is survived by siblings Anne Veno, Louis Frazier, Larry Frazier and Elizabeth Frazier Root.
A service is planned for Frazier in Laguna Beach, though details have yet to be finalized, said John Canalis, editor of Times Community News South, which includes supervision of Laguna Beach’s Coastline Pilot.
Arrangements are still underway with Frazier’s four siblings, who live in Connecticut, Mattingley said.
