Olivia Catherine Chavez

Olivia Catherine Chavez came into the world on December 28th, 1976 in Bellflower, California.  She grew up in Hawaiian Gardens, California, and lived with her parents Mario and Michele, sisters Roberta and Claudia, and numerous cats, dogs, hamsters and fish.  She was raised in the Catholic Church and had a strong faith her entire life.

As a young child, she carried her baby blanket (named Gin-Gin) around with her everywhere she went and loved to be au naturale.  Olivia was known for being the funny one in the family who always made everyone laugh and liked to get into mischief.  She attended Hawaiian Elementary and Leal Elementary and attended Whitney High School for middle school and high school where she graduated in 1995.  Olivia was super athletic, ran track & field at Whitney, and played softball growing up and into adulthood.

Olivia and John met when she was in high school and fell in love.  They moved in together when she graduated from high school and were devoted to each other for over 26 years.  They built a life together in the Long Beach area and bought their house on Rose Avenue in 2015.

After briefly taking courses at Long Beach City College, Olivia worked a number of different jobs, including as an office manager at BioCell Technology.  In January 2002, she started work as the office manager at Los Angeles Junction Railway (part of BNSF), where she worked for almost twenty years.  Olivia was held in high esteem by her co-workers at LAJ both upstairs and downstairs.  She was very proud of her work at LAJ and loved working for the railroad.

Olivia always wanted to be a mother.  On July 2, 2008, Olivia and John welcomed their daughter Gloria Frances Guenthner into the world.  Gloria was named after Olivia’s paternal grandmother, Maria Gloria Chavez.  Olivia was ecstatic to become a mother.  She was a nurturing, generous, caring, devoted mother who poured love into Gloria every day of her life.  She was silly and always up for fun and loved sharing music, good food and laughter with Gloria and everyone around them.  Olivia gave everything she had to give to Gloria and, honestly, she was the best mama in the entire world.

Olivia was a very talented artist, especially with pen and ink drawings, though she worked in many different visual arts mediums.  Her creativity shined in birthday cards, birthday gifts and birthday parties.  Olivia was a kid at heart and loved to go to amusement parks, especially Disneyland.  She loved to throw a good party!  Olivia and John were famous for hosting Thanksgiving dinner at their house every year.  Olivia’s favorite holiday of the year was Halloween.  She decorated everything and it brought her so much joy.

Animal lover doesn’t even begin to describe Olivia’s love of animals.  She was an animal whisperer from the time she was very young and had many different species as pets--cats, dogs, birds, hamsters, fish, snails, bearded dragons, tree frogs and more.  She loved being outdoors in nature, especially at the beach, and loved to go camping with her family.  Olivia, John and Gloria spent many happy times together in Big Bear in the San Bernardino mountains.

Olivia passed away peacefully on September 16, 2021 at Long Beach Memorial hospital, the same place she gave birth to Gloria.  She leaves to cherish her memories:  John and Gloria, Michele and her husband Rick, Mario and his wife Adrienne, grandmother Gloria, sisters Roberta, Claudia and Kara, sisters-in-law Tammy and Sarah, her nieces Virginia, Lily and Isa, nephews Josh, Jacob, Julian, Remy, Fletcher, and Francisco (who was blessed to be her godson), her aunts, uncles, cousins and many other relatives and friends.  Her absence is also felt by her pets--dogs Sally and Sam and cats Sadie, Sweet Pea, Scarlett and her beloved Spiderman. We imagine her being welcomed into heaven by her grandparents Alan, Mabel and Jerry, her uncle Ron, aunts Barbara and Cathy, and her godparents Peggy and Tommy.

In lieu of and in preference to flowers and in memory of Olivia, donations can be made to Seal Beach Animal Care Center , where Olivia and John adopted their dog Spanky, or to WalkUnitedLA , a 5K walk to end poverty in Los Angeles that Olivia and Gloria walked together multiple years.  Olivia created a fundraising team called “Gloria’s Gang” for HomeWalk because she wanted to instill awareness of social issues in Gloria and inspire her to make positive change in the world.  May we all continue to honor her life by being the change we want to see in the world.