This is Librarian’s Week and what better time than to honor our very own Ventura Townehouse Librarian, Leslie Wright. Leslie is a native to Ventura, where she grew up in the Saticoy area before it was incorporated into Ventura. She met her husband, Carl, while in high school and started to date after graduation. After meeting her future mother-in-law, they all realized she used to babysit Leslie and place her in the crib next her future husband, Carl. Carl used to make jokes about that, as you can imagine!
After high school, Leslie’s husband, Carl, joined the military, and two weeks later he was shipped out to Berlin for a year. Leslie went to Ventura College and started volunteering at the downtown library where she learned the Dewey Decimal system.
When her husband returned from Berlin, they had four children over time. They started a construction company where Leslie managed the books and did the drawings of the buildings they would construct. It turns out the “drafting” classes she took in high school really paid off. That is another story. She almost did not get into drafting class because that was a “boys” class. The teacher made her take a test when none of the other boys had to. When Leslie asked why, the teacher replied, “Because you are a girl, I guess”. Leslie passed with a high score and she was in.
After several years of construction work, her husband decided they would retire. He said he wanted to build airplanes in their garage. Leslie helped and went for rides sometimes, but it was not really her thing. She started taking every art class at Ventura College until she exhausted them all! Art 101 was the beginning and she kept taking classes as long as they would let her: drawing, color, design, silkscreen, acrylics, watercolor, and oil. Even sculpture and ceramics. She joined the Buenaventura Art Association (BAA) for the next 15 years. During that time, her volunteer job was hanging the bi-monthly shows in the BAA gallery. It wasn’t work to her, it was fun!
This is how Leslie became the Ventura Townehouse Librarian: She ran into the former Librarian, Barbara, one day and she mentioned if she ever needed any help, to consider her. She offered because she was new to Ventura Townehouse and did not know many people. It was not long before Barbara was ready to hand over the reins of Librarian to Leslie.
Librarian’s Week this month of April, we honor Leslie and we are happy she is here keeping us and our lovely books in order. Leslie’s passion is reading and wishes to pass that on to anyone she meets and especially to our youth. We are surprised and delighted to learn more about Leslie than we ever did before.
–Samantha Crisp, Director of Marketing
