VENTURA : 200 Mourners Bid Farewell to Sheriff’s Deputy
More than 200 relatives, friends and fellow peace officers in uniform bade Mike Gillette a sad farewell Monday during a funeral for the Ventura County sheriff’s deputy in Ventura.
“He was a great man, father, friend and fisherman,” his 10-year-old daughter, Jacqueline Gillette, told mourners during the morning service at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Gillette, 43, died Wednesday of a heart attack while jogging.
After the funeral, the hearse bearing the Oxnard man’s body was escorted by more than 30 police motorcycles, cruisers and other vehicles with lights whirling the three miles to Ivy Lawn Cemetery.
Several streets were closed briefly about 11:30 a.m. as the procession made its way from the church on North Mills Road to the cemetery on Valentine Road.
His two sons and his former boss at the Santa Paula Police Department also spoke during the service.
“He was cool and steady and he could be counted on,” said James Corrigan, who retired in 1986.
Gillette worked in the Santa Paula Police Department before becoming a sheriff’s deputy 10 years ago. He worked at the department’s East Valley Station in Thousand Oaks.
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