It isn't often that dozens of people gather on a sunny afternoon to gaze at a bike rack, but that is just what happened Saturday in Ventura.

The group was admiring a newly placed memorial to Beth Dunn, a Ventura grocery clerk who died in July after being struck by a hit-and-run driver.

The memorial was the brainchild of three friends who frequent Peet's Coffee & Tea, a coffeehouse off Victoria Avenue that was one of Dunn's favorite hangouts.

"We would see Beth here almost daily," said Kim O'Neil, one of the trio of friends. "She always rode her bike, and she always had to lock her bike to the stop sign."

O'Neil said that she and fellow Venturans Lee Harrison and Jennifer Rosen decided over coffee that placing a bike rack with Dunn's picture on it would be an appropriate way to remember the popular Ventura resident.

They bought the rack, had a plaque made with her picture on it and got permission to place the rack on the sidewalk outside Peet's.

Dennis Copas, property supervisor for the retail complex, thought it was a great idea.

"She was just a wonderful person with a radiant appearance," he said.

Dunn, who died at 45, had worked at Ralphs supermarket on Victoria Avenue and was well known in the city.

She and her twin sister, Cathy, had been born prematurely and were developmentally delayed, but had both graduated from Buena High School. They supported themselves, sharing an apartment.

Charlie Dunn, Beth's father, said that he didn't know of his daughter's connection to Peet's until he was contacted about the memorial.

"We raised them to be independent," said Charlie Dunn. "Some have suggested too independent, but Beth had places she liked to go and made friends everywhere she went."

She was riding her bicycle near Victoria Avenue and Thille Street on July 20 when she was struck by a truck.

The driver fled but turned himself in two days later.

Randall Painter, 20, pleaded guilty to a felony hit-and-run charge.

He was sentenced in September to one year in jail and 60 months of probation.

Beth Dunn's sister said the past several months have been difficult.

"She was there every day for 45 years and then she isn't there anymore," Cathy Dunn said after the ceremony.

"I miss her and it is hard, but it has been more positive for the past few months."

About 40 people came to witness the ceremony and to raise cups of coffee and tea to Beth Dunn's memory.

Said her friend Lee Harrison, "May everyone who parks their bike here enjoy life as much as Beth did."