Rena L Gaines Page, passed away on February 17th 2023.

Rena L Gaines Page was born on October 6, 1963 in Taipei, Taiwan, to Jo-Dee Butler, and Lloyd Gaines III during one of her father’s Naval assignments.

She was the 5th child of 6 and the 2nd daughter born during this Union. In 1968, the family returned to the United states, where they settled in Oakland CA.

Rena spent the remainder of her childhood in Oakland where she enjoyed performing gymnastics with her brother, Steven on city teams. She graduated from Castlemont High School in East Oakland, Ca. with an “A” GPA in June1981.

She was accepted and attended UC Davis. She graduated in 1986. She met her husband of 35 years, David H. Page III while attending UC Davis. David introduced her to Dungeons and Dragons which sparked Rena’s lifelong gaming passion.

On April 19th 1987, Rena married David, and they moved to Richland Farms which is a farming area of Compton, CA. While living there she earned her California Teaching Credential from CSU Dominguez Hills in 1989.

In the early 90’s they moved to Lakewood, Ca. And years later to Rena’s dream home in Cerritos, Ca., where David and Rena continued to raise 3 teenage nieces (Christina, Ritchette & Littel), 1 teenage nephew (Charles) and currently 1 teenage godson (Xavier).

Rena taught a range of high school level subjects within the sciences such as Anatomy, Biology, Forensics and Physiology. She began her career at Woodrow Wilson HS in 1988, then taught at Huntington Park HS from 1991-2010. She retired from Dr. Maya Angelou Community HS where she taught from 2010-2022.

During her tenure as a teacher she also served as a Biology Department Chair cheerleading coach, Lead Teacher Advisor, and various other leadership roles. Rena was an educator at heart, she loved curriculum design and invested significant time and effort into encouraging, and empowering her students to go beyond expectations.

Her guidance was not limited to just her students, she always gave meaningful advice to her nieces, nephews, siblings, cousins and peers.

Rena never met a slot machine that she didn’t like and enjoyed their many trips to stay in their timeshare in Las Vegas, she loved playing the piano, landscape painting, crocheting, watching Korean dramas, taking care of and loving the many cats (and one dog) that adopted her over the years, and spending time with family and friends.

Rena will be dearly missed, by all of her loved ones. Rena was preceded in death by her parents Jo-dee Butler Petre & Lloyd Gaines III, and her brother Mark-Anthony Gaines. She leaves to mourn her passing: her loving husband David, her siblings; Sonja Gaines, Steven Gaines, Aaron Gaines, Rick Gaines and Jojuana Petre. And over 30 nieces, nephews, great nieces, great nephews.

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