About our Company

Voted "Ventura County's Best Stationer" for 9 consecutive years
by readers of the Ventura County Star Newspapers.

Lautzenhiser's Stationery and Printing was founded in 1944 by Sara and Leonard Lautzenhiser. They had moved to California from Nebraska during the Depression.

Leonard, known as Dutch to his friends, sought work in Oxnard at the sugar beet processing plant. At nights he worked at a restaurant and on weekends he ran his house painting business. In 1944, Dutch and Sara bought a small printing company and expanded into office supplies. Lautzenhiser's Stationery was the first Hallmark Card shop in the small farming community of Oxnard, California. Three generations and 60 years later, their granddaughter Nancy Manzer, together with her husband Rick, now own and run the company. October, 1996 they opened their second store, Lautzenhiser's Hallmark, in the neighboring city of Ventura.

Lautzenhiser's in Oxnard, often referred to as "the last of the real stationery stores", operated as a traditional stationer until it closed its doors in 2003.  Rick relocated the company's offices and the minute book / records binder business to Ventura, close to their Hallmark store.

Lautzenhiser's Hallmark in Ventura has set a new standard for what a Hallmark Shop should be. Nancy has also branched out her services to include custom invitations and calligraphy.

Nancy's & Rick's stores have created and maintained an unequaled reputation for customer service and quality products so much that readers of the Ventura County Star Newspapers have voted Lautzenhiser's " Ventura County's Best Stationer" for nine consecutive years.

From the Ventura County Star
By Rachel McGrath
Correspondent
Friday, February 15, 2008

Eighty years ago, Sara and Leonard "Dutch" Lautzenhiser tied the knot and embarked on a lifetime's journey together.

Thursday, on Valentine's Day, they said "I do" all over again in front of friends and family.

Sara, who's 96, and Leonard, 101, have been through the Great Depression, two World Wars, and raised two daughters.

The secret of their eight-decade-long relationship?

"A good wife," replied Leonard without hesitation.

The couple, who have lived in Ventura County since 1937, renewed their wedding vows in a special celebration at the Atria Las Posas Senior Living facility in Camarillo, with their daughters Donna Clark of Camarillo and Lois Nadal of Oxnard looking on.

The ceremony was held in a living area off the lobby that had been decorated with red and pink balloons, potted plants and a large, golden wedding arch.

It was presided over by the facility's executive director, Kira Anthofer, who is an ordained marriage minister.

As Anthofer pronounced them married all over again, Leonard remarked: "We'll have to go celebrate tonight!"

Recalling the reason he married Sara, Leonard said he chose her because she was "a nice gal."

"We just didn't want to be apart," said Sara. The couple, who eloped when Sara was 16 and Leonard was 21, were married in Crete, Neb., on July 22, 1928.

It was "togetherness," said Sara, that got them through the hard times, particularly the Great Depression in the 1930s when they had two young daughters.

"You take a little bit, you give a little bit," she said.

Before retiring to Atria Las Posas, the couple owned and operated stationery stores in Oxnard and Camarillo and a Hallmark store in Ventura.