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10 | January 10, 2019 | Malibu surfside news news
malibusurfsidenews.com
In Memoriam
Mildred Mae Meek Decker
Mildred Mae Meek
Decker, 98, died at her
home in
D e c k e r
Canyon on
Christmas
Eve 2018,
after nearly
a century of
adventurous
life in the
Decker
Santa Monica mountains,
including one last and lifeshortening
evacuation from
the Woolsey Fire.
Born May 22, 1920, she
was a Malibu resident for
the past 93 years, having
moved from Iowa in 1925
with her parents, Percy
and Rose Meek, and elder
sisters, Violet and Thelma.
The Meeks settled at Mesa
Ranch (now Nicholas Flats
State Park), where they
raised cattle and horses,
the first of several ranches
in the mountains that they
leased or owned, including
the Mad Ranch (later the
Circle X) and the 10,000
acre Rincon ranch in Carpenteria.
Babysat via
horseback from the age of
2, Meek Decker was one of
the two California women
to be first awarded a jockey’s
license in the 1930s;
in 1941, she also won the
title Miss California Cowgirl.
From the age of 13,
she raced her father’s quarter
horses on brush tracks
up and down the California
coast, including Santa Anita
racecourse in its infancy.
Having honed her roping
skills by helping her father
gather and brand livestock
on local ranches, she was
a skilled cattle roper, and
showed the family ranch
horses in the reined cow
horse division, winning
many trophies — including
the California Cow
Palace prize, and the spectacular
belt buckles that
went with them.
A girl when getting groceries
meant riding cross
country past the Rindge
ranch gates (a young Millie
was particularly impressed
by a mounted Rhoda Rindge
with six-shooter on
hip) then driving wagons
to town on the sand during
low tide, Meek Decker
received her elementary
education at the one-room
Yerba Buena and Decker
schools. She graduated
from Oxnard High School,
to which she rode over 17
miles of mountain trails on
Sunday afternoons, returning
on Friday evenings, often
falling asleep while the
horse brought her home.
While she served her country
during World War II by
working as a riveter on the
B-19 at Higgins Industries,
for the majority of her career
she was, like her father
before her and her son
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today, a renowned horse
trainer. She taught many
Malibu children and adults
to ride, all while raising
her own children Vivian
Lewis, Bonnie, Chip and
stepdaughter Sandy Mandeville.
While offered opportunities
to train horses
at both the renowned
King Ranch in Texas and
the Parker Ranch in Hawaii,
she chose to stay in
the Malibu, although she
also served for a time with
her then-husband Warner
Mandeville as co-ranger of
the Pendola backcountry
station, a period that she
recalled as the happiest of
her life.
In 1961, she married
her fourth husband, Jimmy
“Dynamite” Decker,
and moved to the Decker
homestead, where she
partnered with him in his
guided hunting excursions,
often cooking breakfast before
dawn for a bunkhouse
full of hunters drawn from
both the Malibu hills and
moneyed Hollywood. No
mean markswoman herself,
Meek Decker was responsible
for several of the
47 deer heads that grace
her parlor walls. When she
wasn’t deer hunting, she
was helping Jimmy load
dynamite charges to cut
most of the major Malibu
roads, including the famous
Malibu Rock. She
also served multiple terms
as president of Trancas
Riders and Ropers (a post
her daughter Bonnie has
also held), the local riding
club founded by her father
in 1949, and which continues
in operation to this
day.
In the 1950s, she chartered
and was president of
the Santa Inez chapter of
4H for several years.
A lifelong Democrat,
she voted in every presidential
election from
1940 to 2016, and enjoyed
working at the polls on
election days; she and her
mother, Rose, also were
enthusiastic and frequent
jurors at the Malibu Courthouse
in the courtroom of
Judge Merrick. She was a
lifelong member of the Reorganized
Church of Jesus
Christ of the Latter Day
Saints, and enjoyed visiting
their home church in
Missouri.
Widowed since 1991,
well into her 80s Meek
Decker would set off with
her horse, dog, threelegged
cat and (once) a
one-legged chicken on solo
camping trips in the California
backcountry. During
her 90s, she enjoyed the
year-long planning process
for her annual birthday
campout, where family
and friends would join
her for a weekend at one
of Malibu’s campgrounds.
In recent years she relished
watching movies on the
Western Channel, many
of whose early Hollywood
actors she had known well
and ridden with. Due to
her acquaintance with almost
a century of California
history, Meek Decker
was a frequent subject of
interviews and magazine
profiles, although, a lady
through and through, she
strenuously objected to
LA Magazine’s caricature
of her as “the last of the
Malibu hillbillies.” She
enjoyed her many visitors
and making new friends in
her later years, and when
they asked how she fared,
replied with her trademark
phrase, “mean as ever!”
That quip notwithstanding,
she was devoted to
her family and animals and
the memory of her parents
and sisters, and often
vowed she had enjoyed
the best childhood anyone
could ever have had. She
was preceded in death by
her daughter Vivian Lewis
Smith and her palomino
gelding Skipper, and is
survived by her loyal dog
Levi, her daughter Bonnie
Mae Decker, her son Chip
Mandeville and his wife,
Claire, stepdaughter Sandy,
nephew Clint Doherty
and his wife, Michele,
nephew Bob Bojorquez,
grandchildren Todd, Darren,
Gloriana, Travis, Justice,
Helena and Marielle;
11 great-grandchildren,
one great-great granddaughter,
and her chestnut
mare Dundee, the last of
an 80-year line of quarter
horses whose breeding she
oversaw.
Meek Decker’s great
spirit and fierce loyalty
to her rural way of life
were an inspiration to all
who knew her. The date
and place of a memorial
celebration of her life are
pending.
Debbie Lynn Marie Robinson
Purucker
Debbie Lynn Marie
Robinson
Purucker, 55,
a longtime
resident of
Malibu, died
Dec. 17 after
a five-week
battle with Purucker
the after effects
of the Woolsey Fire.
She was born March 8,
1963. She was the wife of
John Purucker, and mother
of Justin, Christopher,
Caitlyn and Emily. She
was involved with Trancas
Riders and Ropers, and
worked on the trails committee
for the City of Malibu,
for which she received
an award from the City.
She was always involved
in community activities.
She graduated from Santa
Monica High School and
attended Pierce College.
On Nov. 9, during the
fire, she and her husband
stayed at their home in an
attempt to protect it from
the fast-moving fire. When
she saw the fire getting
close, she yelled to John
to get off the roof. He no
sooner got off when an
inferno incinerated their
hand-built home of almost
30 years. They ran for their
lives up the steep driveway
and went to join the rest
of the family they had already
helped evacuate to
the beach. Not long after,
John had to take her to the
hospital with respiratory
problems from smoke inhalation.
After more than
five weeks in the hospital,
she passed away peacefully
with her family around
her. She is survived by her
husband, John, her son Justin
and his wife, Kelsey;
her son Christopher and
his wife, Samantha; and
her twin daughters, Caitlyn
and Emily. She also is
survived by her parents,
Kathleen and Gene Robinson,
her father-in-law and
mother-in-law, Fred and
Mary Purucker, and her
sisters Tammy Gunther,
Nicole Robinson and Lisa
Chavez, as well as many
aunts, uncles, nieces and
nephews.
A private burial is scheduled
at Pierce Brothers
Valley Oaks Memorial
Park in Westlake Village
on Thursday, Jan. 10. In
lieu of flowers, the family
requests donations to a favorite
charity.
Have someone’s life you’d
like to honor? Email lauren
@malibusurfsidenews.com
with information about a
loved one who was a part of
the Malibu community.