Rachel Oliphant, daughter of theme park founder, dies at 86

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) Rachel Oliphant, an Orange County philanthropist and a daughter of the founders of the Knott's Berry Farm amusement park, has died. She was 86.

Oliphant died of congestive heart failure Wednesday at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach.

She was one of Walter and Cordelia Knott's four children, who helped their parents sell berries at a roadside stand. She worked with her sisters as a waitress in the family restaurant before the business became an amusement park.

Oliphant for a time helped run a sports clothing shop on the farm, which former Knott's spokeswoman Patsy Marshall said reflected Oliphant's sense of fashion.

``She always looked like she stepped off the pages of Vogue,'' said Marshall, a Buena Park City Council member. ``She always had a smile.''

Oliphant, an avid golfer and bridge player, was active in, or a supporter of, a wide range of community groups, including the American Red Cross, Salvation Army and Goodwill Industries.

She donated $3 million in 2000 toward a new $8.3 million music building on the Chapman University campus in her name. Construction is to begin this summer and should be completed in time for the fall 2004 semester.

Oliphant's husband died in 1998. She is survived by their children, Jana Hackett and Don Oliphant; her sisters, Montapert and Virginia Knott Bender; and several grandchildren.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)