Esther Mae Woodruff

Esther Mae Woodruff, 101, 8 months, 6 days, a Tucson, AZ resident, and long-time resident of Santa Barbara, CA, went to be with the Lord on Dec. 26, 2025. She died of natural causes. Born April 20, 1924 at home on Whitfield Road in Pasadena, CA, to Noble Ernest Gresham and Nancy Elizabeth Spruce Gresham, after her parents came from Glendale, AZ where they farmed cotton in 1918. Family roots were in Athens, AL (Grisham/Gresham, Poteet, Lentz), Shelbyville, TN (Spruce, Cook, Pickle, Glascock), and Holland, AR (both parents met there in grade school), before coming West. Her father was a farmer and carpenter. Esther was the 13th of 14 children. Her father changed the spelling of Grisham to Gresham in the 1930s because Gresham was said to have been the historically accurate spelling. All her siblings predeceased her:

Carl Vernon Gresham, Carthel Donavon Gresham (Don), Harold Dean Gresham (b.1906, not to be confused with a Harold Dean Grisham, b.1932), Rosanell Hoose (Nell), John Knox Gresham, (infant daughter) Aura Noble Gresham (Aurie), Conrad Tifton Gresham (Connie)Naomi Elizabeth (“Mimi”) Serrurier Briscoe (infant son) Newman Ernest Gresham (N.E./Ernie), Carrol Greene Gresham, Esther Mae Woodruff, Merle Spruce Gresham (Bud)

Esther attended schools in Arcadia and San Gabriel, skipping 2nd grade, graduating from Alhambra H.S. in 1941, from Pasadena Junior College in 1943, and from California State University at Los Angeles with a B.A. in 1959.

After America entered WWII, she worked in a manufacturing plant in Alhambra to support the war effort, roller skating to work on the night shift by flashlight. When Marvin J. Woodruff, whom she had known from their Nazarene church in Pasadena since 1938, proposed marriage, he was in New York unable to secure leave to come to CA. He served on a Coast Guard destroyer escort, the DE-152, USS Peterson, “running Navy” on transAtlantic convoy duty, protecting merchant ships from German U-boats. Esther accepted his proposal and travelled to NYC by train to marry him on May 19, 1944. Esther found work at Macy’s Department Store while Marvin made 40 Atlantic Ocean crossings, being in the first convoy to supply the North Africa campaign and, later, off the coast of France on D-Day. While returning to CA by train via Chicago for the expected birth of Michael, she and the other passengers experienced a frightening train derailment at night in the New Mexico desert. It was said to be a case of domestic sabotage, as the saboteurs mistakenly believed President Roosevelt was on the train.

After living in Pasadena, where their daughter Kathleen was born in 1948, Esther and Marvin moved to Spokane, WA planning for Marvin to attend graduate school at nearby WSU. However, without having resident status and enduring a particularly harsh winter, they returned to CA, buying their first home in Arcadia, CA in 1950, where son Patrick was born in December. Esther went to Cal State Los Angeles for two years to earn her degree and certification as a teacher. They moved to Santa Barbara in 1959 where she taught 3rd and 4th grades at Harding and McKinley elementary schools until her retirement in 1981. She and Marvin celebrated sixty years of marriage in 2004 prior to his passing in December of that same year.

They lived on Alameda Padre Serra for one year before moving to Walnut Lane in Goleta. In 1962, they built a home on San Antonio Creek Road. In 1990, as Esther and her two visiting sisters were evacuated, Marvin saved the home from the disastrous Painted Cave Fire, fighting the fire alone with garden hoses. While hundreds of neighborhood homes spontaneously burst into flame, burning to ash, and cars melted in the high heat, he attributed his surviving the fire’s intense radiant heat to God’s protection. After his passing in 2004, Esther lived alone until she moved to Arroyo Grande to live with her daughter. She had been a Santa Barbara resident for 49 years.

She lived in Arroyo Grande, CA from 2008 to 2018, traveling with her daughter on trips to the UK (Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England) and Hawaii. She had many friends at Grace Church in Arroyo Grande, being near her childhood friend Jeannette Smee. In 2018 Esther moved to Tucson, AZ to live with her son Michael and daughter-in-law Teri where she loved big blue Arizona skies and spent time cloud gazing. She enjoyed birds, butterflies, the Catalina Mountains, and trips to Mt. Lemmon and the Chiricahua National Monument with her friends, Larry and Jeanne Fellows. During the pandemic of 2020-21, she lived with her son Patrick and daughter-in-law Mei in Yucaipa, CA. She became a resident of Broadway Proper in Tucson in 2021 under the supervision of Teri and Michael before moving to the Arizona Homestead where she had many friends who will miss her.

A licensed pilot, Esther loved flying to Mariposa County’s Mt. Bullion airport, managed and operated by her brother Bud. She hiked many times with Marvin in the Sierra Nevada range, including reaching the summit of Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the 48 coterminous States. Her hobbies included gardening, sewing, reading, and genealogy. She cherished her family and friends who loved her sense of humor and were grateful for her daily prayers. For some years, she played the piano when her husband led Sunday worship services for seniors in a Santa Barbara retirement facility. She kept up with correspondence and faithfully remembered family birthdays.

A member of Santa Barbara Community Church, she attended Grace Bible Church in Arroyo Grande and Holy Redeemer Anglican Church in Tucson. She is survived by her 3 children, Michael J. Woodruff (Teri) of Tucson, Arizona; Kathleen M. Roemer of Salem, Oregon; Patrick D. Woodruff (Mei) of Yucaipa, California; 7 grandchildren (Matthew J. Woodruff, Tobin B. Woodruff, Megan E. Nerdig, Roxanne Wilcox, Rachelle Hawks, Jason A. Woodruff and Michelle Goins) and 17 great-grandchildren. As the last of her Gresham generation, she will be greatly missed by her family members. She leaves 8 nieces and 3 nephews. She will be laid to rest in Riverside, CA beside her husband in the veteran’s National Memorial Cemetery. She will be remembered as a beloved teacher, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, who loved her Lord and knew He was the source of every blessing and answered prayer