Estella Naylor-van Hoorn (1931-2010)

Estella‘s obituary is in today’s Daily Breeze.

Estella Naylor-van Hoorn, a 50-year resident of San Pedro and world traveler extraordinaire, died peacefully surrounded by her family on Monday, June 21. She suffered complications post surgery in 2008, which crippled her body but never her beautiful mind and peace-making essence. Estella was born May 23, 1931 in Santa Rita, NM to Josephine and Larry Gonzales. They moved to Los Angeles in 1947, where she attended Manual Arts High School and later graduated with honors from Immaculate Heart College, making her the first in her family to receive a university education. She worked at an aviation magazine upon graduation from college, and toyed with the idea of flying lessons. She traveled by commercial air instead the summer of 1957, where she toured Europe in a convertible Fiat with her good friend, Margaret Moran. She met her first husband, Geoffrey Naylor, in 1960. They settled in San Pedro, where they raised three children, Mary, Catherine (Katy) and Michael. Geoffrey died in 1972. Estella, now a widow with three children, pioneered selling Avon on ships docked in Los Angeles harbor, winning many sales awards throughout the 1970s. In 1978, she became president of Standard and Hall Ship Supply in San Pedro, a business she owned and operated with Gus van Hoorn, her longtime friend whom she married in 1999. Together, they enjoyed friends and family, doting on their grandchildren, Devon and Ian Ostheimer and traveling the world from China and Turkey to the Netherlands and Australia. She will be remembered with love for her grace, intelligence, kindness, diplomacy and the importance she placed on the many quality relationships she nurtured throughout her life. A service will be held celebrating her life at 1:00 p.m., Friday, June 25 at Green Hills Mortuary in Rancho Palos Verdes. Please sign the guestbook at www.dailybreeze.com/obits.

Published in Daily Breeze on June 23, 2010