Victoria Lukavich Cline
Victoria Lukavich Cline, 75, passed away Oct. 23 in Los Angeles after a lengthy illness.
She was born Feb. 10, 1941, to Theodore and Helen Lukavich in Butler. Lovingly raised on the family farm, Victoria obtained her pilot’s license at age 14, and at 16 was crowned “Dairy Queen” and awarded the coveted Showmanship Award along with her cow, Daffodil, at the local fair.
Victoria graduated from Moniteau High School in 1959. She was the first in her family to attend college, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1963 from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa.
Soon after graduation, Victoria moved to Los Angeles in the hopes of becoming a writer. She almost immediately began working in the marketing and advertising industry, serving clients such as Ferrari, JC Penney and Hang Ten.
A true pioneer for women and women’s rights, Victoria was a born entrepreneur and opened her own advertising agency, Victoria Basler & Associates, in the 1980s where she became pivotal in the resurgence and rebuilding of what is now Old Town Pasadena, Calif.
After meeting and marrying the love of her life in the early 1990s, Victoria and her husband, E. Roderick “Rick” Cline, built a home and moved to the Sea Ranch in Northern California where they made many new friends, traveled to destinations such as the Galápagos Islands, Iceland, the Amazon, Alaska, Europe and South America and enjoyed the beauty and nature of their surroundings. In 2004, Victoria and Rick moved to Ojai, Calif., where they lived happily, taking road trips and hosting countless barbecues, Thanksgivings and Christmases with their daughters and their families, and their many friends, both old and new.
Victoria was faced with several health challenges in her life, which she fiercely and bravely overcame, including a brain aneurysm, renal failure, a kidney transplant, having that transplant fail after 25 years, and rheumatoid arthritis. Not one to be kept down, you could often find Victoria practicing Tai chi under the glorious Oak trees in Ojai into her 70s.
She loved Rick, her children, her grandchildren, great-grandchildren and her trusted circle of friends and family beyond measure. Victoria was a staunch Democrat and a believer in compassion and kindness as well as treating our Earth with loving care and organ donation activism, as an organ donor once saved her life.
Her parents; her first husband, Joseph Basler; and her beloved second husband, Rick Cline, predeceased Victoria.
Her survivors include her daughters, Eva Marie Basler and Amy Basler Hammond and her husband, Lee; her grandchildren, Ryan Thompson and his wife, Julie, Erik Thompson, Jake Basler, Emma Demirjian, Eli Hammond and Gus Hammond; and her great-grandchildren, Benjamin and Rylie Thompson.
Her sister, Antoinette Benecki; her brother-in-law, Walter Benecki; and a host of beloved cousins, nieces and nephews also survive her.
CLINE — A memorial service for Victoria Lukavich Cline, who died Sunday, Oct. 23, 2016, will be conducted later.
In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate that you become an organ donor or donate in her memory at http://organdonor.gov or http://donatelifecalifornia.org.
Additionally, gifts may be made to The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, ATTN: Planned Giving Office, The Huntington, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 90042. http://huntington.org/giving/.
