Ray D. Prueter may have been the mayor of Port Hueneme, the city's first Citizen of the Year and a lifetime member of the Hueneme School PTA, but he wasn't above dressing up in women's clothing with other local businessmen for a once-a-year show called the "Men's Follies."

"He was the emcee, and he also sang," said longtime friend Jeannette Moranda, recalling the riotous, feather boa-strewn performances that were a highlight of Port Hueneme's Harbor Days festival.

"He was a real showman. He even made a lot of the costumes," she said. "It seemed like he could do everything."

Prueter died April 7 in Montana at the age of 87.

Born in Raymond, Wash., he moved to California with his family in 1922 and worked in banking before serving in World War II. After their wedding in 1951, he and wife Laura Prueter moved to Port Hueneme, where they raised two daughters.

Prueter served as mayor from 1962 to 1974, a stint that coincided with the time that his friend Walter Bill Moranda was city manager, said Jeannette Moranda, Bill's widow.

"The community was a lot smaller and everybody went to everything in those days," Moranda said. Still, Prueter seemed busier than most: He belonged to Rotary, was co-chairman of the Hueneme High School Booster Club and became a 50-year member of the Port Hueneme Chamber of Commerce.

He retired twice: from the insurance business in 1991 and as executive director of the Ventura County Contractors Association in 2001.

"I think he knew everybody in town," said city librarian Cathy Thomason, who attended many a chamber breakfast meeting with Prueter.

She also knew him through his namesake library, which opened in 1989. He visited the library regularly before he and Laura moved to Anaconda, Mich., nearly two years ago.

Thomason recalled watching Prueter chat with children at the Port Hueneme library. "He would introduce himself, and the kids' eyes would go wide. They'd say, You mean, you're the library man?' He got a real kick out of that," she said.

Prueter often made impromptu donations to the library's collections, Thomason said. Once, when she was trying to figure out how to fund the purchase of an expensive English-language tutorial that included multiple compact discs and workbooks, Prueter walked in with the same tutorial to donate.

"He was a strong advocate for the library," Thomason said. Thanks to the Friends of the Ray D. Prueter Library, he still is. When he and Laura moved away from Port Hueneme, the organization created a book-sale fund for the purchase of selected tomes in the couple's honor, to be denoted by specially designed bookplates.

By the time they received word of Prueter's death, the group already was well into planning its next book sale, which will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in front of the Ray D. Prueter Library, 501 Park Ave. The same day, a memorial service is scheduled for Prueter in Anaconda, Mont.