‘Granny’ Lavern Head, 85, died in her sleep Thursday, April 10, 2003, at Valley Christian Home in Hemet.
Granny was born Oct. 20, 1917, in Barren County near Glasgow, Ky., the sixth of seven children, to James Elbert “Pap” and Flora Bailey Reed.
When the great influenza epidemic of 1919 came, both her mother and her baby brother died.
She and her husband, Calvin Albert Lewis, came west to California in 1939 with their daughter, Caralon, surviving the Great Depression in lean times.
They lived in Lemoore and later that year moved to the Lemon Heights area of Tustin where her husband’s mother had an orange grove.
Mr. Lewis tended the grove and the family lived in a home of which daughter Caralon said, “That little shack of a house we lived in has been replaced with a million-dollar home today.”
At the beginning of World War II, the orange grove was sold and the family moved to Santa Ana where they both worked for Douglas Aircraft.
After Granny and her first husband’s divorce, she married Floyd J. Head while working for him at a machine shop in Hollydale.
Later, she worked for Ducommon Steel. The family lived in Windsor Hills and Ladera Heights.
In 1968, she retired and moved to Pine Cove, followed by her daughter and grandchildren.
Due to declining health, she moved to Hemet in 1999.
A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday, May 3, in the meadow at Idyllwild County Park. The Rev. Kristeen Bandelin of Shiloh Christian Ministries will officiate. A potluck immediately follows at the County Park.
Along with her daughter, she is survived by a sister, Christine; three grandchildren, Deidra (Doug) Wood of Pine Cove, Sandra (Jay) Johnson of Idyllwild and Robert (Paula) Allen of Hemet; four grandchildren, Paige, Ashlyn and Rhiland Allen, and Jason Johnson.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Hemet Hospice, 890 W. Stetson St., Ste. B, Hemet, CA 92543.