THOSE WHO PERISHED

In two neighborhoods bordering Wildcat Canyon Road, 12 people died before dawn on Oct. 26 in the first hours of the Cedar fire. They included a painter, a high school senior, a Vietnamese immigrant and a World War II veteran.

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Galen Blacklidge

About 11 years ago, Jim Milner put a personals ad in the San Diego Reader. He was looking for a woman of “refined sensibility” and described himself as a poor 35-year-old student. Friends told him no one would answer an ad like that. Someone did: Galen Blacklidge.

When they met for coffee, Milner said, “I thought, ‘Not only is she artistic and bright and profound -- she’s beautiful.’ ”

Blacklidge, a painter who taught textiles and drawing at the Design Institute of San Diego, soon moved into Milner’s back country cabin in a neighborhood known as Strange Way near the Barona Indian Reservation. They took long walks together, practiced Buddhist meditation and savored the peace of their rustic neighborhood. Milner’s sister, Ann McKittrick, called them soul mates.

Fleeing the fire, Milner and Blacklidge left their cabin together, but in separate cars. Milner lost her in the flames and smoke. Her car was found about 100 yards off the road, her body nearby.

Blacklidge, 50, had eclectic taste and an eye for harmony. “Every member of the family, when remodeling, wondered, ‘What would Galen think?’ ” McKittrick said.

Two of the painter’s colorful canvases survived; Blacklidge had given them to Milner’s relatives: a still life of eggs and a copy of a Van Gogh that the family called the “Van Galen.”

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Gary Edward Downs

Gary Edward Downs worked hard to create his own slice of paradise in the country.

Downs, 50, who ran a small business providing motorcycle escorts for funeral processions, had remodeled and expanded his home near the Barona Reservation, said Jon Smalldridge, a neighbor.

“He took something that had looked like a dive inside and opened it up and made it look pretty decent,” Smalldridge said. Smalldridge said that he had stopped by Downs’ home and warned him that the fire was close. Downs died in a ravine not far from his house, outside his burned-out Jeep Cherokee.

Downs enjoyed life in the remote mountain canyon, Smalldridge said. “He seemed to like not having people at your front door all the time and not having cars driving by all the time,” he said.

At the same time, he added, “When I would knock on his door, he always seemed like an inviting neighbor.”

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Jennifer Sloan, Robin Sloan, Mary Peace

Jennifer Sloan recently got her driver’s license, a car, and her braces removed.

The 17-year-old high school senior died with her mother, Robin Sloan, 45, and aunt, Mary Peace, 54, on the Sloan family property near the Barona Reservation. “Jennifer was a typical teenager,” said her cousin, Tracy Parsons.

At El Capitan High School, she was a tutor who helped developmentally disabled students.

Jennifer Sloan’s mother, Robin, was an outspoken woman known for her big hugs.

Robin Sloan had a talent for crafts, particularly jewelry. She made Christmas presents, including monogrammed towels and holiday ornaments. Her generosity extended to her customers at Wal-Mart, where she worked as a cashier, dropping in change if they were short of cash.

As the fire neared, she went to warn her ex-husband, who lived nearby. On the phone, Jennifer told a friend who urged her to leave that she wanted to wait for her mother to return.

Mary Peace also took time to try to save others. When the fire hit, Peace, a mother of two, went to check on neighbors a quarter of a mile away.

Peace’s remains were found inside her home with those of Napoleon, her black and tan short-haired Chihuahua. “She would bring him everywhere,” Parsons said.

Until the past year, according to Parsons, Peace had worked as a traveling nurse. “Everywhere she went, she wanted to move, and every town she visited was the nicest place she had ever been,” Parsons said.

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Stephen Shacklett

A bear-sized man with a gentle demeanor, Stephen Shacklett was host for family Christmases and weddings on his spacious property in Lake View Hills Estates.

Relatives said he liked to talk politics over a beer and had recently started playing the stock market. Shacklett, 55, grew up in the Lakeside area, and had moved back to the area in the 1970s.

Shacklett had worked in construction all his life, including a stint in Saudi Arabia several years ago. For the last two years, he had supervised sites for CDM Construction. Shacklett had recently finished adding restrooms and setting up electricity, water and sewer service for Lexington Elementary School in El Cajon, said company President Rudy Ledbetter.

He died in his recreational vehicle while trying to escape the fire with his two Irish wolfhounds. Shacklett had been following Cheryl Jennie, his partner for 23 years, who thought Shacklett’s vehicle was right behind hers, said Jennie’s sister, Linda Van Derck.

Shacklett was devoted to Jennie, Van Derck said. “He was real protective over her.”

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John Pack, Quynh Yen Chau Pack

John Pack was willing to do just about anything to please his wife, Quynh Yen Chau Pack, said his twin sister, Charity Britton.

Her parents traveled from Vietnam and visited them, Britton recalled. “He had never tried octopus or anything like that. But he didn’t want to be rude, so he did. He told me, ‘Oh gosh, this is awfully chewy.’ ”

The couple died trying to drive out of the fire with their Huskies, overtaken by flames on a dirt road 600 yards from their cabin near the Barona Reservation.

Jim Pack, John’s father, said he and his son had planned to go fishing that day.

John and Quynh, both 28, had met about five years ago. Quynh was within months of earning a degree in business administration from Cal State San Marcos. John had started a new job at a Santee auto repair shop, and had recently been fixing up a silver 1965 Chevrolet truck that he had inherited from his grandfather.

John’s twin sister said it is hard to believe he is gone. “I’m still waiting for him to come to my window to have a cigarette with me,” she said.

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Solange Shohara, James Shohara, Randy Shohara

The Shohara family had finished building a new home in Lake View Hills Estates just last year. A quarter-mile driveway opened up to a sprawling stucco house that they designed on the principles of feng shui, with a gazebo and koi pond on acres of land.

“This was their dream home,” said Joe McLean, their contractor and neighbor.

James Shohara, 63, his wife, Solange Shohara, 58, and their son, Randy Shohara, 32, died trying to drive to the San Vicente Reservoir to escape the flames.

Randy was a bodyboarder who also rode dirt bikes and skateboarded, friends said.

His parents were correctional officers at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.

The Shoharas were avid readers with a home library custom-built to accommodate Solange’s enormous book collection, friends said. When they lived in Ramona, the two spent many hours at Pages Book Cafe, said the store manager, Nicki Glaser.

After moving to Lakeside, the two would meet every afternoon at Annie Oakley’s Cowboy Cafe to read the newspaper or work the crossword puzzle, said Lee Perry, who owns the cafe. They had a favorite table.

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Ralph Westly

World War II veteran Ralph Westly, 77, had trekked the Sierra Nevada and the Cascades before settling into a mountain cabin in the neighborhood known as Strange Way.

He died as he tried to warn friends about the approaching fire, relatives said. His body was found near his car on a neighbor’s property, 300 yards down a rural road from the converted turkey coop where he was living.

In 1991, the recently divorced Portland, Ore., native was looking for a place that was inexpensive and close to nature, said Westly’s longtime friend David Landry.

Friends and family said Westly, a retired paint store clerk, liked to run and bike in the mountains.

The health food and fitness buff lived simply, friends said. He grew vegetables on the small plot of land and chopped the wood that heated his cabin. He did not own a computer and used an outhouse rather than install plumbing.

A few years ago, he put up his own electricity pole and wires after reading books on the subject, said his daughter Laurel Westly. “He referred to it as the rural electrification project,” she said.

Westly spent hours at the local library, Landry said, reading all of Shakespeare’s sonnets and plays in a year.

The last time the two talked, Westly told Landry he was making his way through Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” in Middle English.

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OTHER FIRE VICTIMS

Obituaries on the other people killed in October’s wildfires in Southern California. B17-B18