Erle F. Redel; Retired Salesman, Gifted Singer

Erle F. Redel, a gifted singer who performed with church choirs and community theaters, died Friday in a Woodland Hills hospital. The Ventura resident was 88.

Redel was born in Marshalltown, Iowa, on July 3, 1908. He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1930s, where he met his wife, Marjorie. The couple moved to Burbank, where they raised a family and sang with the Burbank Civic Light Opera. Redel worked for 30 years as a salesman for the Royal Wholesale Cigar Co.

“He was very interested in singing and did a lot of it, both with church choirs and with the Civic Light Opera,” said his son, Roger, of Newhall. “I loved going to the theater and seeing both my parents on stage.”

In 1980, Redel moved to Ventura, where he joined the First Baptist Church of Ventura and sang in its choir.

“He was a quiet man with strong religious convictions,” Roger Redel said. “One of the things he loved the most, because he was married to her for more than 50 years, was his wife. He was very much a family man.”

In addition to his son, Redel is survived by daughter Diana McGuinness of Camarillo and two grandchildren. He was preceded in death by Marjorie, his wife of 56 years.

Services will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Ted Mayr Funeral Home, with the Rev. Edwin Girod of Trinity Presbyterian Church of Camarillo officiating. Burial will follow in Ivy Lawn Memorial Park in Ventura.