Victoria Ibleto was born in Petaluma in 1931, early on in the Great Depression. She learned the value of hard work while growing up on her family’s vegetable ranch, and became an integral and beloved behind-the-scenes force in local businesses that introduced Sonoma County to the splendors of a plate of pasta half in red sauce, half in green.

The former Victoria Eleanor Ghirardelli was employed as a Bank of America teller in Petaluma when she married Italian immigrant and future “Pasta King” Art Ibleto in 1951. A hands-on partner, she helped her well-known husband in their family’s custom butcher shop, their former Christmas tree farm and Ibleto’s Spaghetti Palace on the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, as well as the family’s vineyards and rental houses and the Pasta King catering and frozen foods businesses.