The owner of Southern California’s Mulligan Family Fun Center, Georgia Ann Claessens, died in February at the age of 60 from injuries suffered in a horse riding accident. She started riding horses at the age of two, and hadn’t stopped since, competing in jumper class competition just weeks before her passing.
Georgia spent a long life in many places around this world, but California was home. She played volleyball in college at UC Santa Barbara, and met her husband in the ‘80s, moving with him to Holland where they lived for five years. Returning to the States in 1988, the couple settled in Palos Verdes Peninsula.
In 1991, she founded the Mulligan Family Fun Center in Torrance, Calif. Since then, the name has spread with two other Mulligan locations opening in the other California towns of Palmdale and Murrieta. (RePlay profiled Georgia and her company in a March 2006 article as the Mulligan concept expanded to a third store.) However, owning a chain of FECs didn’t quite keep her busy enough: she also owned a landscape company, participated as a board member in her parent’s company, Storm Industries, and was active in several other businesses.
Georgia is survived by daughters Fontine, Gemma and Celine, son Dominique and sisters Alexandra, Claudia and Elizabeth. A memorial service will be held at Green Hills Mortuary in Rancho Palos Verdes on Saturday, March 12, at 10:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.