Esther "Holly" Gubrud


Big Bear Lake, San Bernardino County, CA
Published in the "Big Bear Grizzly" January 9, 2006 2:56 PM PST
File uploaded 20 Jan 2006

This file is part of the California Tombstone Project
http://www.rootsweb.com/~cemetery/california/californ.html




Esther "Holly" Gubrud 85, passed peacefully Dec. 15, 2005, at her home in McKinleyville, Calif.

She is survived by her daughter Joyce Cusick of Bear River City, Utah; daughter and son-in-law, 
Judy and Robert Hodgson of Fieldbrook, Calif; and daughter Jayne Hamm of Steamboat Springs, Colo. 
She is also survived by 11 grandchildren and 27 great-grandchildren with more on the way.

She is preceded in death by her two sons, John Sheppard and Michael Sheppard, and her husband, 
Richard Gubrud.

Holly was born in 1920 in Los Angeles, the daughter of Russian immigrants, one of 12 children. 
The family often lived on farms in the Central Valley and eventually ran a grocery store in 
downtown Los Angeles. She attended Teddy Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles where she excelled 
in all sports. She became a professional softball player after graduation. Highlights of her career 
included playing for Columbia Pictures of Hollywood and traveling on a United States Goodwill Tour 
in 1938 to Japan, China and the Philippines. Many of her teammates went on to play professional 
baseball during World War II, a wartime effort that was the portrayed in the movie "League of 
Their Own." Holly was recruited for the team but was working in an airline parts manufacturing plant 
when she met John Sheppard. They were married in 1942 and had four children.

Holly was widowed the first time at age 32 and returned to work as a cocktail waitress at night at 
Dante's in San Marino where Pearl Bailey often sang and played. Later Holly began a long career in 
the meatcutting business, working for grocery stores in Southern California. She remarried and a 
third daughter was born in 1955.

 
She continued to play recreational softball most of her life. She learned to snow ski at age 55 and 
she became an avid golfer.

In 1973 she moved to Big Bear and began another career in real estate. She loved Big Bear and worked 
until she was forced to retire in 2000 at age 78. Due to health reasons, she moved to her daughter's 
home in Humboldt County.

There was a celebration of her life at the Church of the Joyful Healer in McKinleyville Dec. 18 
attended by many family members and friends. Her three daughters then drove her home to Big Bear for 
burial at Gold Mountain Cemetery.