Vivian Louise Hopkins, (formerly Badon), passed away peacefully at home on March 3, 2024 after a yearlong battle with brain cancer. She was born on September 5, 1937 in Miami, Florida to J. Leonard Hopkins of Abaco, Bahamas and Iva (Major) Hopkins of Miami, Florida, whose family was from Harbour & Long Islands, Bahamas. She graduated salutatorian from Dorsey High School in Miami, Florida, where she enjoyed playing the clarinet in the marching band. She studied at Florida A&M University and Bennett College in North Carolina before graduating cum laude from the
University of Southern California with her Bachelor of Science degree in Occupational Therapy.
She married Aldon Badon and they relocated to Lompoc, California where she worked as an Occupational Therapist for California Crippled Children’s Services on Vandenberg Air Force Base. She became an elementary school teacher and worked at La Purisima Mission School. When they
moved to Santa Maria, California, she taught elementary school at St. Mary’s and Arellanes Elementary Schools. During this time, she attended Cal Poly University in San Luis Obispo in the evenings and earned her Master’s degree in Education. She continued to alternate between teaching and occupational therapy.
After she and her husband parted ways, she moved to Atascadero, California and worked as a teacher and counselor at California Men’s Colony, where she later retired. She subsequently lived in Miami, Florida and Federal Way, Washington. During her return to Miami, her spiritual journey led her to become ordained in the Episcopal Church, where she served as Deacon at Christ Episcopal Church in Coconut Grove, Florida and later St. Luke the Physician Episcopal Church in Miami. She returned to southern California in 2013 to live in Port Hueneme and finally Oxnard.
Throughout her life she enjoyed camping, traveling, sewing, walking, gardening & a variety of music genres. As an avid reader, she had an insatiable curiosity about many topics. She was always on a journey of living out and deepening her faith and spirituality. Her belief was that all life
is sacred because of our Creator (Yahweh) and being mindful of always being in the Divine Presence leads to living with more love for others; a Divine Presence that is constant and not confined or bound to a specific place. She felt that Richard Bach’s book, “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” and Neil Diamond’s musical interpretation of the story, best represented her life’s journey. She was always a teacher and forever a student. She also became passionate about genealogy and worked on discovering family history with her brother, Dr. Donald Hopkins and cousin, Rev. Ida Louise Johnson.
She is preceded in death by her parents, siblings Andrew Hopkins, Joseph Hopkins, Clarice McLean and Ivan Hopkins. She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Catherine and James Templeton, siblings Leonard Hopkins of Miami, Florida, Patricia Cooper of Wyncote, Pennsylvania, Dr. Donald Hopkins and his wife, Ernestine Hopkins of Chicago, Illinois, Paulette Hopkins of Miami, Florida & Marcia Hopkins of Commerce, Georgia. She is also survived by sisters-in-law Althea Vignaud and Muriel Lynn White, her goddaughter Diana White of Los Angeles, California, as
well as numerous nieces, nephews and friends. Her kindness, wisdom & love of life & people will be greatly missed.
A memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m. April 6, 2024 at the JOSEPH P. REARDON FUNERAL HOME & CREMATION SERVICE, 757 E. Main Street, Ventura, California. In lieu of flowers, the family requests to have donations in her honor to any of the charities she supported: Habitat for Humanity, The Carter Center, Southern Poverty Law Center or any food bank or disabled veterans groups.