Reba Yudess, one of Culver City’s most admired and visible residents, died on Saturday following a battle with ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lou Gehrig’s disease. She was 72 years old.
She was a much loved second mother to many former students from her children’s generation, and she also compiled a necklace of community legacies that would stretch around a building.
A towering community figure, for 17 sometimes-lonely years, Ms. Yudess was the principal creative force behind Fiesta La Ballona. Friends said she not only was the chief organizer every summer, she kept Fiesta going when interest grew worryingly thin.
“I can’t remember a time when ‘Mom’ wasn’t around,” Micki Wolk, a classmate and contemporary of the three Yudess children, Barry, David and Maxine, starting at LaBallona Elementary, said this morning. “She was warm. She was gregarious and she always had a smile.” A number of Mr. Wolk’s friends were “adopted” by the Yudess family, and many affectionately addressed her as “Mom.”.
“Reba was everybody’s extra mother,” said School Board member Scott Zeidman. “When ever you needed someone to talk to, Reba always was available with sound advice.”
A couple of years ago when he decided to run for the School Board, Mr. Zeidman was unsure where to start, and so he called on Ms. Yudess. “I am sure that she was ill at the time,” he said. “But she spent hours and hours counseling me with advice, with ideas and thoughts. She gave me all this time in spite of her health and even though I had not seen her since graduating from Culver High nearly 30 years before. When I walked in, I was completely lost. When I left, thanks to Reba, I thought, ‘Yes, I can do this.’”
Steve Gourley, another School Board member, said that “Reba’s heart always was in the right place.”
Barry Yudess said that his mother “lived her life with purpose in the service of others.”
Ms. Yudess’s deeply rooted community affiliations would cover a lengthy arm.
She applied her leadership skills to the benefit of such organizations as the March of Dimes, a foster children’s group, Culver City school PTA’s, Little League baseball, La Ballona Fiesta Days, the Soroptomists, and the Boy Scouts of America. Politically astute, she ran many local political campaigns.
Ms. Yudess died at the Kingsley Manor in Hollywood. She was born in Jersey City, N.J., on Aug. 10, 1936, and she was married in her hometown to Sam Yudess.
In 1958, they moved out west to Culver City where they raised their three children.
In earlier years, Ms. Yudess worked as a teacher’s aide at the elementary school level, and for years she was a bookkeeper for various businesses.
She is survived by son Barry and daughter in-law Laurie, son David and daughter in-law Hilda and daughter Maxine. Ms. Yudess also is survived by her seven adoring grandchildren and her sister Helyn DeMattei.
Funeral services will be across town on Thursday, at 10 a.m. at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park, 5950 Forest Lawn Dr. 90058. In lieu of flowers, the family asks to make a donation to the ALS Assn at http://www.alsa.org.
