Carole Anne Onorato, a third generation San Franciscan and a Placer County mainstay who worked tirelessly in both activist and official capacities for decades, died June 10 due to complications from heart surgery earlier this year. She was 75 years old.
The Lake County Board of Supervisors honored Mrs. Onorato with a moment of silence at the board's June 12 meeting.
Her son, Brad Onorato, is known to many in Lake County for his service as district representative for Congressman Mike Thompson. Brad Onorato told the Sacramento Bee that of all his mother's many accomplishments, her proudest achievements were as a wife, mother and grandmother.
The Sacramento Bee reported that Mrs. Onorato was in the midst of her eighth term on a Placer County Board of Education at the time of her death.
She was a homemaker who also had served on the California Transportation Commission, the Water Resources Control Board, the Placer County Library Commission, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and helped build the Tahoe City public library, according to the Sacramento Bee.
She was born Carole Anne Newsom in San Francisco in 1932 to parents Christine and William Newsom, and was the oldest of the couple's six children, the Sacramento Bee reported.
In 1952 she married Fred Onorato; the couple had just celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary three days before her death, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Together, the Onoratos raised five children.
Mrs. Onorato was preceded in death in 2004 by son, Brian.
She is survived by her husband, Fred, of Auburn; sons, Brad Onorato of Napa, Dave Onorato of Davis and Peter Onorato of Minden, Nev.; daughter, Christine McKevitt of San Mateo; and five grandchildren, according to press reports.
Donations in Mrs. Onorato's memory may be made to the Placer County Library, 350 Nevada St., Auburn, CA 95603.
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