Wedding bells to ring again for Ramona’s 92-year-old honorary mayor

John Degenfelder and Gail Payne found a slice of paradise at Critterville Ranch in Ramona. And on Feb. 21, the two will celebrate their second chance at romance with a wedding there.

The wedding party will gather in the horse ring while Degenfelder, 92, a widower and Ramona’s honorary mayor, and Payne, 70, exchange vows beside the gate. They will be joined by a horse named Luna Rosa, a cockatoo named Mr. Butters, Degenfelder’s Australian cattle dog, Roscoe, and Payne’s poodle, Jazzy.

The couple were engaged just a few months after their first date last summer. But they had first met at Degenfelder’s 90th birthday party at Pamo Valley Winery two years ago.

“Somehow I ended up sitting next to him on a bench and we toasted a glass of wine, then I didn’t see him again for two years,” said Payne, a Ramona resident who worked in property management and real estate for 30 years.

Luckily, she returned to the winery, run by her good friend Jennifer Lane, in August 2020 and by chance Degenfelder walked in.

“Jennifer said to him, ‘you need to go talk to Gail’ and he took me out to dinner that night,” Payne recalled. “We’ve been together ever since. It’s a great match. We’re both animal lovers and wine drinkers and the conversation is really amazing because he’s so full of information.”

Payne said she tries to keep an open mind. So when Degenfelder encouraged her to try skydiving, she bravely went along. Each time she returns to the skies she said she enjoys the tandem ride with a professional skydiver even more.

Degenfelder’s love of horses and other animals was one of several reasons he ended up living in Ramona. Long before moving there, he owned 11 Critterville pet stores, mostly in Los Angeles and one each in Phoenix and Tucson. Degenfelder got his pilot’s license so he could fly exotic animals, including reptiles, birds, monkeys and tropical fish, to other pet shops that needed them.

Occasionally he flew to Gillespie Field in El Cajon to visit two of his six children, who were attending San Diego State University and San Diego City College at the time. Since the sky is generally clearer in Ramona, his airport of choice became Ramona Airport.

He sold his pet store business in 1970, dabbled in running a country store along the Klamath River, then bought a kiln manufacturing business near San Jose a year later. As Degenfelder became more acquainted with San Diego, he moved his kiln business to Santee.

“I bought a house in Ramona and a piece of business property at Fourth and Main streets,” said Degenfelder, who has served two years as the community’s honorary mayor after his selection by the Ramona Town Hall Board of Trustees. “Then I built this house on Duraznitos Place from scratch in 1980.”

The 1,800-square-foot, three-bedroom ranch house built on a boulder at Critterville Ranch has all the comforts of home, plus equestrian facilities, three aviaries, a spa and sauna, and a panoramic view of Lake Cuyamaca and the mountains from the back porch.

Payne’s career brought her to Ramona in 2004 and she moved there in 2010.

She said meeting Degenfelder gave her renewed hope after being single for 12 years and her last living relative, Patty Waite, had passed away in 2014.

“The day we got together our lives changed,” Payne said.

She jokes that she took the initiative and asked Degenfelder to marry her. But after she floated the idea, he decided to pop the question.

“Sometimes short-term relationships just happen and at our age, what are we going to do, wait a year?” Payne said. “We’re happy together so it just makes sense to dive in and commit.”

Degenfelder expressed those same sentiments in a text to the children he raised with Arvie, his late wife of 69 years. Arvie passed away peacefully at home on Sept. 21, 2017, at the age of 88, Degenfelder said.

His text, addressed to Jean Appleby, Jill Bacorn, Joyce Lazarus, John Degenfelder, Julie Harski and Jim Degenfelder, said: “Gail and I are going to get married. We’re very happy together and we want to spend the rest of our time together.”

The two originally hoped to marry Jan. 28, but their plans were postponed due to COVID-19. Administration building closures forced them to schedule an appointment for a marriage license online and the earliest they were able to get the license was Feb. 11. Then they set the wedding date for Feb. 14, but discovered that their friends and family had arranged other Valentine’s celebrations that day.

So they settled on tying the knot on Feb. 21 and selected the wedding party, including Don Wendt as best man, and Jennifer Lane as matron of honor. Lane’s 7-year-old daughter, Ella, will be the flower girl and Degenfelder’s 10-year-old great-grandson, Addicus Harski, will be the ring bearer. His granddaughter, Serena Gilbert, 17, will be a bridesmaid.

Payne said she’s excited about becoming part of Degendfelder’s large family of six children, 15 grandchildren, and 25 great-grandchildren. The couple go to his daughter, Jill Bacorn’s, house every Sunday night for dinner, joined by three of Bacorn’s four children who live in Ramona, and her grandchildren, where they enjoy sweeping views of Ramona near Fourth Street. They also make monthly visits to daughter Jean Appleby’s house near Lake Hodges.

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