T.O. fitness instructor shot to death in San Diego
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

Lisa Walsh

Thousand Oaks resident Lisa Walsh, 42, was found dead of a gunshot wound July 6 at the San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina. According to police, she was killed by a male acquaintance who then committed suicide.

Her family, who described themselves as feeling like they were "locked in a nightmare, unable to wake up," wanted her life, before the tragic gunshots were fired, to be remembered.

Lisa Walsh was born in Milwaukee, Wis., on Dec. 21, 1963, the youngest of three children, to Don and Mary Lucas. Her brothers were Michael and Scott.

"Her exuberant personality was apparent even as a small child, and she would carry this outlook of being happy, positive, uplifting, considerate, loving, throughout her life," Michael Lucas said.

She had a lifelong love of learning, dancing, music and animals, he said. She even loved to catch snakes. At age 4 she learned to ride her favorite horse, Freckles.

"She was so tiny on the large horse," he recalled.

Walsh had recently adopted a dog, Pearl, from the animal shelter.

"She was well-liked and had many friends throughout her life," her brother said.

She enjoyed baby-sitting as a youngster. At age 10 she would often ask neighbors if they needed help with the children or cooking because she enjoyed it so much. She was more concerned with nurturing others than she was with getting paid for her help, Lucas said.

He also recalled how, at age 6, his sister often cooked in her EasyBake Oven for her big brothers.

She enjoyed walks and all outdoor activities. She excelled at track and crosscountry running, he said. "When her older brothers were grown and moved out of the house, Lisa was equally happy shopping or cooking with her mother as she was with hiking, skiing or being her father's bike-riding buddy," Michael said.

She was an exchange student in France one summer during high school and had kept in touch with her exchange family ever since.

"In Lisa's (description) of her stay, she told her family that when she opened the shutters and they swung open onto the beautiful French landscape, she could hear the song from 'Sound of Music' ringing in her ears," her brother said.

She graduated from high school in Wisconsin in 1981 with honors and received a bachelor's degree in business and marketing from Mount Mary College, an all-girls school.

Lisa married Jack Walsh in 1988, and they moved to Thousand Oaks. They worked together in the furniture industry until the birth of their first son, Lucas, when Lisa decided to become a full-time mother. She and her husband had two more sons, Douglas and Thomas.

"She truly excelled at motherhood, devoting herself tirelessly to her boys' development and helping them gain a wide range of life experience," Michael Lucas said.

She carefully recorded important events in her sons' lives in Creative Memories albums.

As her children grew up, Walsh became a personal trainer.

She and her husband were divorced at the time of her death.

"She will be forever missed by so many people, but she wouldn't want them to grieve her death. Rather, she would want them to celebrate her life and to honor her memory by sharing their love and joy for living with each other," Lucas said.