Bay Area woman makes her home in Los Banos—and stays for 46 years

This summer two longtime residents of Los Banos, Leslie and Mike Villalta, will be leaving to make their home in another state to be near their grandchildren. They have been part of the fabric of their community for a half-century.

Before they leave, I wanted to talk with each of them to get their perspectives on their time in Los Banos. Today’s column focuses on Leslie.

In 1975 a young woman raised in Hillsborough, a San Francisco suburb, decided to come to Los Banos, where she would teach and make her home.

Leslie Waters had been raised and educated to be an independent woman. Her decision to live in Los Banos exemplified that independence.

At that time Los Banos was a town of 10,000 residents. Few people in the Bay Area had even heard of it. At the College of Notre Dame, near San Francisco (Belmont, Calif.), Leslie met a fellow art student who had lived in Los Banos all his life. In making her decision, she knew exactly where she was going.

“I like small towns,” Leslie said, “and I appreciated the opportunity to teach at Our Lady of Fatima, a Catholic grade school which reflected my Catholic background. The principal, Marcella Olson, was also the kind of person with whom I liked working.

“During my interview with Mrs. Olson,” Leslie said, “I had only one question. After I told her I liked to sew and make my own clothes, I asked if I could make and wear pantsuits. She hesitated, checked with the school advisory board and then told me I could. That was a sign of those times.”

“I found a place at the Alamo Apartments on Fifth Street, at that time one of the best places for a renter,” Leslie said. “I could walk to church and go to an array of downtown stores like Cornet’s variety store, Connell’s stationery, Mastrangelo’s clothing, and J.C. Penney’s.”

The art student Leslie had met in college was Michael Villalta. By the time she moved to Los Banos, Leslie and Mike had been dating for several years. She had already come to town to see the May Day parade and to meet Mike’s parents, Gus and Carmella Villalta. “They welcomed me so warmly,” Leslie said, “and I felt at home.”

Two years later, in 1977, Leslie and Mike were married in the Church of the Nativity in Menlo Park. By then Mike had been working as a teacher in Los Banos at Henry Miller School.

When Leslie became pregnant, both Leslie and Mike made a decision that when their child was born, Leslie would leave teaching and stay home to raise their daughter. “Mike was earning a reasonable salary that could support all three of us, and I could use my teaching experience to help my daughter develop before she went to kindergarten,” Leslie said.

Meanwhile, Leslie and Mike thought more about an idea they had long been considering: owning a frame shop. Dick and Lynnette Gerbi, friends of the Villaltas, heard that a local hardware store which had also done picture framing was looking to sell its inventory of framing equipment and supplies.

In 1982 Mike and Leslie negotiated a reasonable price for the sale of that inventory. They rented a small store on I Street and set up a frame shop. Mike also had a serious interest in framing and helped Leslie with tasks like cutting glass.

“When I started Los Banos was still a small town,” Leslie said, “I wondered whether I’d have enough business. But from the very beginning I was busy. My customers were patient with me as I gradually learned more and more details of the framing craft.”

Leslie continued to run a frame shop in Los Banos for the next 38 years until she decided to retire at the end of 2019. For much of that time the shop was located on the corner of Fifth and I streets, in a place that they had built, next to the building where Gus Villalta had run his radio and TV repair business.

“I enjoyed framing, especially helping customers find just the right frame for their favorite artwork or photographs,” Leslie said. “Mike and I continued to learn new framing techniques. And it was nice I could have my daughter with me in the shop as she grew up.”

Like Mike, Leslie will miss Los Banos. “I had so many good experiences here that took me in many different directions. I taught guitar, for example, at both OLF and at the Los Banos Campus of Merced College, where I also taught childbirth education classes.

“And I’ve enjoyed the many friends I’ve met over the years,” Leslie added. “They have been very kind, and I’ve enjoyed sharing good times with them.”

(In my next column, I’ll share with my readers the perspectives of Leslie’s husband Mike and his years as school teacher and administrator, followed by his years as city councilman and mayor.)

This story was originally published April 11, 2021 at 6:20 AM.