Virginia Meadows, Stroschein Family Member, Dies at 66

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO —  Virginia Stroschein Meadows, a member of a longtime Anaheim and San Juan Capistrano family, died Sunday at her San Juan Capistrano home after a long fight with cancer. She was 66.

Mrs. Meadows was a granddaughter of William and Fredericka Stroschein, who traveled across the country after immigrating from their native Germany and settled in Anaheim’s German colony in 1882.

In 1887, they moved to San Juan Capistrano after buying a ranch in what is now the city’s downtown area.

The Stroscheins raised English walnuts and later citrus in an area next to Mission San Juan Capistrano that stretches along what is now Del Obispo Street between Ortega Highway and Camino Capistrano. The Stroscheins were also among the founders of the city’s Community Presbyterian Church.

Mrs. Meadows’ father, Carl Stroschein, was the constable of San Juan Township--the city’s only police officer--from the late 1930s into the early 1950s. “He was the only law officer between El Toro and San Clemente during that time,” said San Juan Capistrano historian Pamela Hallan-Gibson, author of “Two Hundred Years in San Juan Capistrano” and Mrs. Meadows’ niece.

Mrs. Meadows was born in San Juan Capistrano on May 4, 1926, in a small house on the ranch that is now the headquarters of the San Juan Capistrano Chamber of Commerce. She graduated from the old Capistrano Union High School in 1943.

She is survived by her husband, T.J. Meadows; a daughter, Melody Meadows Lopez of San Juan Capistrano; a son, Bill Meadows of Carlsbad; her mother, Ruth Stroschein, and sister, Marie Gunter, both of San Juan Capistrano, and four grandchildren.

A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Friday at the Community Christian Church, 31612 El Camino Real, San Juan Capistrano. Mrs. Meadows was married in the church, the former site of Community Presbyterian, which is now in a new location.