MARION "MARIANO" B. VILORIA
1907 - 2009

Marion Viloria, a long-time resident of Lompoc, passed away at the age of almost 102 at the Lompoc Skilled and Rehabilitation Center early Saturday morning, May 23, 2009, after a two-week battle with pneumonia.

Mr. Viloria was born in the Philippines on August 5, 1907, and came to the United States in 1926. He worked on the farms in the Napa Valley before settling down in Lompoc in the early 1930's when he worked with Mexicans, Japanese, and other Filipinos on the Burpee Seed Company farms west of the town of Lompoc.

Marion was drafted into the US Army First Filipino Infantry Regiment and became a naturalized American citizen while in the military service. His Army unit saw action in the Philippines in the final days of World War II, and he was honorably discharged from the military in late 1945 with some other Filipino-Americans from Lompoc.

Marion was employed as a yard maintenance man with the Kailani Village Apartments complex from the 1960's up to his retirement in 1977. He was one of the founding members of the Lompoc Filipino American Club in 1967 and was an active member of the Club's barbecue team. Marion loved bowling and fishing and won several trophies and awards during his younger years.

Mr. Viloria was never married but had numerous nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews, and great grandnieces and grandnephews, the children of his sister in the Philippines.

Visitation will be from 8-9:30 am, Wednesday, May 27, at Starbuck-Lind Mortuary followed by the mass of Christian burial celebrated by Monsignor John Fitzgerald at 10 am at Queen of Angels Catholic Church. Cremation will be followed by private inurnment in a national veteran's cemetery.