CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Lyda F. Ernst, 82, died April 14, at a rest home in Clearlake, Calif., after a long bout with Parkinson’s disease. Her daughter Pamela Stanley and her husband, Gary, were at her side.

She was born Jan. 27, 1924, in Rumford, the daughter of John C. Mitchell and Herberta Penley Mitchell. She graduated from Mechanic Falls High School and received her registered nursing diploma in Cambridge, Mass.

Moving to California, she was a nurse at a hospital, where her future husband, William Ernst of the Navy, was a patient. They lived in California, Texas, Oklahoma and back to Paradise, Calif. as a retired couple.

They were volunteers at the Feather River Hospital in Paradise and attended Paradise Alliance Church. She had been a registered nurse for 35 years. They moved to Lake County, Calif., to be with their daughter, Pamela, and husband of Middletown, Calif.

She is survived by her daughter and husband; son, Kerry of LaPine, Ore.; sisters, Lula Meserve of Mechanic Falls, Carolyn Frantz of Fairview, Okla., Jean Mitchell of Lakeview, Ark., and Joyce Hellen of Minot; brother, John C. Mitchell Jr. of San Antonio, Texas; grandson, Joseph Stanley, U.S. Army (Iraq); and granddaughter, Bethany Stanley of Carmichael, Calif.

She was predeceased by her husband, William; and her parents.