Honey Lanning, a Simi Valley resident for 44 years and a nationally recognized swimming instructor, has died at the age of 64. She was diagnosed with cancer only about a week before she died on March 8.

Services for Lanning will be held at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow, Sat., March 18, at Simi Valley's Cornerstone Community Church, 2080 Winifred St.

Friends describe Lanning as a community icon and 35-year water-safety advocate who taught thousands of children and adults to swim. Jan Adams, Lanning's best friend of 36 years, said the figure is most likely around 15,000, since Lanning taught group swim lessons every summer for 31/2 decades.

Counted among her students are the children of celebrities such as Eddie Murphy, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, Blair Underwood and Keenan Ivory Wayans. Lanning also appeared on "Entertainment Tonight" with PinkettSmith to advocate water safety for children.

Her 1997 video, "Swimming for Toddlers Ages 1-3," won parenting awards and recognition from national publications including Billboard Magazine and The Washington Post.

The Finnish native took a revolutionary approach to swimming. She believed that no one was water safe or should ever swim alone: even the most accomplished swimmer can drown.

And she adamantly opposed having children use floaties-inflatable arm bands and such-because they could give children and parents a false sense of security.

Moreover, Lanning's teaching babies as young as 8 months old to swim ran contrary to the tenets of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The organization doesn't endorse teaching children under 4 to swim.

But Lanning wasn't intimidated.

"I vigorously dispute the AAP's misdirected and flawed practices regarding youngsters learning to swim. The AAP is wrong. Absolutely, dangerously wrong," she unapologetically stated on her website, www.simiswim.com.

With unwavering conviction in her beliefs, Lanning taught many infants to swim-to hold their breath and manipulate their bodies so they could turn and get safely to the side of a pool. Her goal was to prevent children from drowning.

"I am unwilling to suffer through another summer where a young child dies in a backyard pool," she wrote on her website. "One preventable loss of such a jewel as a child is just too many."

Eileen Whitmore met Lanning more than a dozen years ago when her young son took swimming lessons. As the two became close friends, Whitmore began helping Lanning with her website to get the message out nationwide that children of all ages can learn to swim safely and correctly.

"(Honey) gave them a strong foundation for proper swimming techniques to be used later in life," Whitmore said. "She was a passionate, very active woman."

According to Whitmore, Lanning was on the verge of seeing her dream fulfilled. She was working with actor Isaiah Washington of "Grey's Anatomy" on making another swimming video and promoting it nationally.

Lanning is survived by her husband, David, and daughters Cherlyn Lanning and Debbie Chyba, grandchildren Natalie and Paul Chyba and son-in-law, Tomi Chyba.

She was the foundation of the close-knit family, which also enveloped others not biologically related to her, said Stacy Thompson, who grew up with Cherlyn. Lanning not only taught Thompson to swim when she was a toddler, but also taught Thompson's three young children.

"To me, God used her as a guardian angel to teach children how to swim," she said. "We just love her. It feels lost and empty . . . knowing she's not here."

Lanning learned to swim in the frigid lakes of Finland by the age of 3. At age 6 she moved with her family to the U.S. While attending high school in Texas she met David. They would have celebrated 45 years of marriage in May.

By the age of 17, Lanning had earned water-safety instructor credentials at the University of Chicago. Besides teaching, she swam in competitions, earning first place at the Junior Olympics in team competition and third in duet.

Although Lanning is no longer around, her work will continue. Another instructor who shares her swimming philosophy is willing to take on students, according to Lanning's lifelong friend Adams. More information will be given on Lanning's website.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made in Honey's memory to the Simi Valley Community Foundation/SimiSwim, 40 W. Cochran St., Ste. 100, Simi Valley 93065.