A victim of California's deadly mudslides had celebrated his 89th birthday just hours earlier, while another was a ballerina turned real estate agent known as "The First Lady of Luxury Real Estate" in parts of Montecito, an enclave for the wealthy and famous. Her firm, Riskin Partners, credited the former ballerina with having closed more than $2 billion in high-end real estate sales since founding the company in the early 1990s. She returned to her hometown of Los Angeles in 1979, where she began selling high-end real estate on the city's west side. ———Josephine "Josie" Gower, who also died in the Montecito mudslides, was celebrated by family as a woman who loved and embraced life for each one of her 69 years. The 84-year-old former real estate broker had fled his Montecito home just last month when it came under threat from the wildfire.

Source: ABC News January 12, 2018 02:26 UTC