Mert Lapeyre-Montrose

View a recording of the service at: 

https://www.viewlogies.net/conejo-mountain/w5VEYjObM?pin=849884 

The most beautiful, magical, astonishing, fascinating, and marvelous creature in all the land left this world on Wednesday, August 3, 2022. Mert Lapeyre-Montrose made her earthly debut as Carol Victoria Lapeyre in Moorpark (Oxnard Hospital) on December 20, 1946, the youngest of five girls, to Alexis Lapeyre of Moorpark and Violet Lapeyre (nee Barker) of Junction City, Oregon.

Mert was quite the character, living life on her terms, but always polite, never had a bad thing to say about anyone, and always put others at ease. She saw the world numerous times before reaching adulthood. Her childhood home was the ranch in Tierra Rejada Valley in Moorpark, that her grandparents farmed beginning in the late 1890s. She loved riding horses, and rode all over Moorpark, long before any housing developments, 23 Freeway, or Reagan’s Library (that you see today) were even thought of. She fondly remembered picking up the mail at the post office on High Street with her mother, listening in on other Moorpark residents’ phone calls (party lines), and when, very briefly, Rocketdyne provided electricity to Moorpark.

By the age of four, she, her sisters, and her mother joined her father at the Bomi Hills Iron Ore Mine, outside of Monrovia, Liberia, in West Africa where he was the mine superintendent. Her sisters returned to Moorpark in a few years, but she remained there throughout grade school, while visiting the home ranch a few months every two years. While in Africa, she made wonderful friends for life with other kids from all around the world, and loved listening to her friend from the Vai tribe “talk” to nearby villages with his drums. She enjoyed many adventures in Africa, such as traveling up river with her father to camp when her mother was upset; “coercing” a python to follow her home to be a pet (it wanted to eat her and was quickly removed); refusing to shake Vice-President Richard Nixon’s hand to avoid getting in trouble from her mother; and proving she could use dynamite to blow off a door so perfectly that you could hang another door in its place, to name a few.

After grade school, Mert was sent off to Weybridge, Surrey, in Great Britain for 5 years, to be a boarder at St. Maur’s Catholic Convent School. During these formative years, the nuns transformed her from an “uncivilized American jungle-child” into a “very proper,” very “British” young lady. She graduated and was enrolled at Rosslyn House finishing school when her mother stated she missed her terribly and warned she would personally come retrieve her if she did not return home at once. However, while at St. Maur’s, she had made additional friends for life with girls from all around the world, and had many fond memories of: helping the priest drink the wine while performing her alter boy duties; putting powder on the floor to see the resident ghosts’ footsteps in the boarding school (that was King Henry VIII’s 500 year old hunting lodge); playing LaCrosse and being knocked unconscious with a LaCrosse stick; and traveling on holiday with friends to visit their home countries…including the time the plane was forced to remain on the runway in the Maldives (with all the other passengers and crew waiting) for two hours so she and her friend could have dinner with the girl’s dignitary father. 

Once back in the States (after her father retired and the family moved home), Mert began attending Cal Lutheran College in Thousand Oaks. It was during this time she met the love of her life, Les Montrose. Within five years they were married and remained inseparable for the rest of her life. They built a life together having three girls and eventually one grandson; teaching her children how to properly search for faeries; attending 4-H and dance events for her girls; going on many adventures to wonderful locations; working for the Simi Park District at Oak Canyon Community Park for 17 years; motorcycle adventures with their friends in the Tri Valley Touring Riders group; visiting the local Moorpark eateries for relaxing meals, especially when karaoke was involved (so she could listen to Les sing to her); visiting with friends and family; attending Liberian reunions with other kids who grew up in Bomi; reminiscing about her childhood to all that would listen; and sipping wine with her “world,” Les, on the deck overlooking a Moorpark farm almost every evening. 

To see life through her eyes, to stop and notice the small things that everyone takes for granted, to see all people as inherently good, to see magic in the world, was the most amazing blessing of having her in your life. There will never be anyone else like her, and though her absence will continue to be felt by so many, the ‘wonder’ that she brought to our lives will live on in our hearts forever. She is preceded in passing by her parents, Alexis and Violet Lapeyre, and her two eldest sisters Jeanne Canty-Lapeyre and Celine Gillibrand. She is survived by her two older sisters, Marianne Schaeffer and Madeline Lapeyre; her “world,” husband Les Montrose; three daughters, Stephanie Lapeyre-Montrose, Alexis Lapeyre-Montrose, and Devon Meyers; and grandson, Jack Meyers. 

In lieu of flowers, please hug family members, call a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while, smile at a stranger at the supermarket, stop to look at a bee enjoying a flower, watch the bats grab dinner at sunset, and sneak a sip of wine when no one is looking.

...Family in the care of Erin Arteaga, Funeral Director