Carmelita Miranda, resident of Fillmore for 17 years, passed away on October 2th after a year long fight with cancer. She was 64 years old. Carmelita is survived by her husband, Charles Morris, her brothers Victor, Anthony and Raphael, and by her sister Natalie.
Best known to Fillmore residents as an award winning photographer and co-owner with her husband of KSSP Photographic Studios in Fillmore for the past 9 years. Carmelita's photography has touched the lives of many people. In 2011, one of her high school senior portraits won Best of Show in the professional division at the Ventura County Fair. She also won recognition in professional image competitions at the local, State, National and International levels.
Carmelita's other passion was astronomy and teaching children the sky. Since 2000, she worked for the Discovery Center for Science and Technology (Thousand Oaks) as the “Star Lady” that brought the night sky to tens of thousands of elementary students using a portable planetarium. In honor of her work teaching children, the famous comet discoverer Carolyn Shoemaker named an asteroid (a minor planet), with approval of the International Astronomical Union, after Carmelita. Asteroid 48416 (Carmelita) is a main belt asteroid between Mars and Jupiter that orbits the Sun every five years. Carmelita also enjoyed showing the public the stars and the Sun with telescopes. It was astronomy that brought Charles and Carmelita together.
Born in San Francisco, Carmelita graduated from San Francisco State with a BA in physical education. She taught at Los Medanos Junior College, Pittsburg, CA. Being a avid sailor, Carmelita sailed to (and from) Hawaii as the captain of a small sail boat. She loved sail boat racing and to sail with her meant you were going to get wet. One trip to Hawaii, she decided to stay. Carmelita ran a sail boat charter service until Hurricane Iwa sank her boat. She also survived Hurricane Iniki in 1992 going without electricity for six weeks. Much of her time on Kauai, Carmelita worked for KUAI radio selling “puffs of air” (advertising) and as a weekend country music DJ. In 1997, she left her beloved Hawaii to join Charles.
On November 2nd, there will be a Celebration of Carmelita's Life. In Lieu of flowers, please contribute to the American Cancer Society or the Relay for Life in Carmelita's name.