The former editor of The Signal, Lila Littlejohn, died in her sleep on Sunday morning at the age of 68.

Lila Littlejohn, a veteran journalist, journalism teacher and former editor of The Signal, died Sunday morning peacefully in her sleep at her home in West Melbourne Florida on Sunday, Aug. 7, according to family.

According to her elder sister, Lucinda Baker, Littlejohn passed in relation to a genetic heart condition causing a dilated aorta.

“As far as we can tell, her cause of death is not directly related to that, but it’s somehow related to that because she probably died of an embolism to the brain or the heart,” Baker said. “She died asleep. There was no struggle or anything, but we thought she had been doing really well.”

Littlejohn lived in the Santa Clarita Valley in 1969 and called Canyon Country home for 15 years. “She loved being in Canyon Country, that was just really her element,” Baker said. “She really loved the time she was up there. She lived in Pasadena and in various other places around Southern California, but she really loves Canyon Country… that’s where she raised her boys.”

But Littlejohn was passionate about the English language and writing. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at California State University, Northridge, according to Baker.

She was a news reporter and editor for The Associated Press in Los Angeles, the City News Service of Los Angeles, city editor of the Pasadena Star-News, and reporter and city editor for The Signal. She also served in a position on the copy desk of the Daily News in Woodland Hills.

“Lila was always a class act,” said KHTS co-owner Carl Goldman. “We were friendly competitors throughout her stint at The Signal. Her passion for Santa Clarita was prevalent in her leadership at the paper. Our valley lost a key creative journalist.”

She was a teacher and mentor, too. Littlejohn taught journalism at College of the Canyons, Mount San Antonio College and the University of Southern California.

Littlejohn is survived by her two sons, Tomas and Brian, and three grandchildren, according to Baker.

“She had a full life and she enjoyed life. We weren’t ready for her to go, but she was well prepared. She was definitely a dedicated individual: dedicated to her family, her profession and the proper use of the English language,” wrote Baker in an email.

Funeral plans are as of yet unsettled, however, Baker mentioned a possible service in Southern California.

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