We are sad to announce that. Hattie America Wiggins passed away at the age of 98 on November 22, 2018, at her home in Oxnard, California. She and her husband, Melvin Wiggins, founded Wiggins Lift Co., Inc. in 1960. Mel passed away on November 24, 1989.
Hattie was born on October 14, 1920, in Ada, Oklahoma. She married Melvin Wiggins in 1935. They lived in Oklahoma and Texas before following the Great Migration to California. After living in Newhall, Hawthorne, and Ojai, they settled in Oxnard and began Wiggins Lift Co., Inc., a heavy machinery manufacturing company, making forklifts for the agricultural industry. Wiggins Lift grew to provide innovative and customized forklifts to the marine, agriculture, military, yard, and mining industries. Mel passed away in 1989, and Hattie continued working at the company every day until this year.
She is survived by a son, Michael and his wife, Nancy; a daughter Darleen, and her husband, Paul. She has four grandchildren (Michele, Dana, Melissa, Michael) and eight great-grand-grandchildren (Micah, Cayman, Alexa, Maya, Grayson, Cody, Kennedy, Holland).
A memorial service will be held at the Ventura Church of Christ on Wednesday at 12:30 pm, followed by a burial at Ivy Lawn in Ventura. In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to the John Clayton’s Does God Exist program.
See also:
Happy 95th Birthday, Hattie Wiggins!
Ventura County Star: Oxnard’s Wiggin’s Lift has been a family business for over half a century
to : Mike Wiggins & all the Wiggins People. All the times I went to the wigging factory Hattie was there with a Big welcome and smile. She was a remarkable woman and a pleasure to see her every time , she will be greatly missed. we all say a loving good bye.
I am surprised to saw a woman in the industry of heavy equipment who started her own business and fully supported her husband. She was having a versatile personality by keeping a happy family and establishing a giant business. She is an example for all woman. I am expecting the same from her children.
She really deserves the name of “Iron Lady”.
Rest in peace.
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