October 21, 1929 - December 7, 2014 October 21, 1929 - December 7, 2014 Thousand Oaks, California-Reba L Osterman, nee Mason, 85, peacefully gave up her over-four-year struggle with the effects of Alzheimer's disease on December 7, 2014. Her husband of 65 years, Jim Osterman, and their sole surviving daughter, Linda Kelly, and her husband, Mike, were with her at her passing. Shortly after her birth in Fletcher, Oklahoma (near Fort Sill) on October 21, 1929, the depression and "dust bowl' forced her parents, Lon and Mabel Mason, to look for better opportunities first in Texas and then Los Angeles where they arrived in 1936. Reba attended schools in the LA system graduating from Hamilton High in 1947. She attended Woodbury College for a short time but after she and Jim became engaged she worked for a bank and a telephone company. Jim and Reba were married May 29, 1949, moving several times before their first daughter, Linda, was born. Within a few years two additional daughters, Cheryl and Sandy, were born and Reba became a full time mother. She was a great mother and participated in their affairs as well as in church and charity groups. In the 1980s, she became a volunteer at the Dependency Court as a "guardian ad litem". In this role she would be assigned to see that their needs were being met and to give her opinion to the Court as to what should be done in the best interest of the child. In 1996 tragedy struck when our second daughter, Cheryl, died of a stroke at age 41 and it struck again six years later when our youngest died of breast cancer at age 46. Obviously, these events were devastating to both of us. We moved into the new combination retirement and health care community, University Village Thousand Oaks, in September 2007. Reba's enjoyment of the pluses of UVTO did not fully come to her. The onset of her disease brought about her admission to the skilled nursing facility in 2010. In addition to her husband, daughter, and son-in-law, Reba is survived by three grandchildren Erin, Megan and Scott and seven great-grandchildren. She is also survived by her brother Lonnie and by many nieces and nephews including Jake and Jessica.
Published in the Los Angeles Times on Dec. 14, 2014