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Fullerton Heritage, Fullerton, CA (2026)

06/09/2026

In May 1906, Fullerton hotel and saloon owner Adam Brandle, Sr. (1862-1952) hired notable Anaheim brick and concrete contractor Charles Schindler (1848-1912) to construct a cigar store, bowling alley, and billiard/pool hall at 112 West Commonwealth Avenue. Charles Schindler came to Anaheim from Germany in 1873, constructing hundreds of early brick residential and commercial buildings in the city. It is thought that Schindler also built many of the early brick structures in Fullerton, but this is the only one so far identified. Considered the premier brick contractor in Orange County, Schindler owned a brickyard known for its quality clay on the south side of Broadway between Euclid and Loara Streets. The bricks were formed and fired by Chinese workman. (Anaheim had the largest and oldest Chinese community in Orange County, located at what is now the intersection of Anaheim Boulevard and Lincoln Avenue.) In addition to being a master brickmason, Schindler was a plasterer who did various types of cement work. He installed the first cement sidewalks and curbs in Anaheim. Schindler constructed an imposing personal residence on West Center Street (now Lincoln Avenue) in 1890, which suffered extensive damage during the 1933 Long Beach earthquake and was demolished.

Just before the new Brandle cigar store, bowling alley, and pool hall opened, Fullerton residents had voted to ban alcohol sales in April 1906. Brandle owned the nearby Brandle Hotel and Saloon, and it is likely that he continued to sell beer in his new bowling alley and pool hall for some time to his customers. His son, Adam Brandle, Jr. – the blonde-haired boy in the photographs – worked at the bowling alley setting the pins by hand, and he remembered he had to hurry because the customers, when they had too much to drink, would throw the bowling balls as he was still setting the pins. By 1907, Adam Brandle had added a barber shop and cold and hot baths to his all-male establishment, and advertising that he sold soft drinks.

Adam Brandle sold the brick building in 1916 to Otto Miller, who turned it into a garage. In 1922, local contractor George Croner was hired to convert the Miller Garage into four separate units, and over the next decades, the building, which later had an addition, housed multiple businesses, including a barber shop, a laundry, a small grocery store, and a paint shop. The building underwent a retrofit and remodeling in 2008, and the front portion facing West Commonwealth Avenue, shown in the 1906 photographs, now houses The Dresser Bridal Couture (112-A).

A German emigrant, Adam Brandle arrived in Fullerton around 1892. He met and then married divorcee Christine Golter (1859-1938) in 1896, helping to raise her son, Paul Golter. The couple would have one daughter and two sons. After her 1895 divorce, Christine added an addition to her home, turning into a hotel and bar, the Golter House and Bar (115 South Spadra Road, now Harbor Blvd.), located between Commonwealth and Santa Fe Avenues. After her marriage to Adam Brandle, the building was renamed the Brandle Hotel and Saloon. The “neat and well kept” hotel rooms cost $4.00 to $5.00 weekly, with single meals costing 25 cents. In November 1897, Christine Brandle was arrested for selling liquor without a permit in the hotel’s 15-cent restaurant, but the case was dismissed. The Brandles were able to obtain liquor permits from the Orange County Board of Supervisors and the Fullerton Board of Trustees, legally selling alcohol at their hotel. When liquor was banned in 1906, the Brandle Hotel was converted into a restaurant. In 1919, Adam purchased the lots adjoining the hotel, which he demolished to construct a new brick business block, which also had a billiard and pool room.

By the 1920s, Adam and Christine Brandle had amassed a significant amount of wealth, owning land throughout the downtown area as well as a citrus ranch on Orangethorpe Avenue. Adam Brandle moved into home construction, building homes in various areas of Fullerton, including South Highland and Valencia Drive. In 1920, the couple announced their retirement and purchased the August Hiltscher home at 245 West Commonwealth Avenue.

The couple lived in the West Commonwealth dwelling until Christine’s death in the home in 1938. At that time, Fullerton city officials wanted to eminent domain the houses and other structures at the corner of West Commonwealth and Highland Avenues to make way for a new City Hall (now the Police Station). While many of the residents in the area did not want to sell their lots and homes, Adam Brandle graciously sold his lot, moving the former August Hiltscher residence outside Fullerton City limits. When August Hiltscher’s son, Herman Hiltscher (1901-1973), who was born in the home in 1901, was appointed City Administrator/Manager in 1953, he would joke that his office was located where his bedroom once was.

06/03/2026

Haunting of the Jennie Scovel Curtis House (206 W. Wilshire Avenue)- Shortly after the death of her husband, schoolteacher Jane (“Jennie”) Curtis (1849-1925) relocated to Fullerton to be near her only child, Charles Irving Curtis, Jr. (1878-1962), a Fullerton rural mail carrier (23 square miles, 172 homes). In April 1900, she purchased from the Wilshire Brothers – Ga***rd and William Wilshire – Lots 1 to 6 of Block 18 of the original Townsite for $540, gifting Lots 5 and 6 to her son, who planted sweet potatoes and other vegetables on the vacant land. She constructed a Victorian cottage on Lot 2 that she shared with her son, her daughter-in-law, and a growing retinue of grandchildren. Widowed twice, the thrice-married Charles Curtis, Jr. would have 13 children. Mrs. Curtis was a charter member of the Fullerton First Christian Church, along with Fullerton’s first mayor, Charles C. Chapman; an active member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU); and a suffragette. When women obtained the vote in California in 1911, she was one of the first to register. When her son moved to Los Angeles to work as a mail carrier, she moved in with her granddaughter, Margaret Elizabeth Pearcy (426 Jacaranda Place), and rented out her West Wilshire home. After the death of Mrs. Curtis in 1925, chiropractor Dr. Thomas Edward Quine (1885-1977) purchased the property using it both as a medical office and his residence for the next forty years. He resided in the bungalow with both his first wife, Annie Rimmer (1882-1939), and his second, Geraldine Wiggins Kelley (1896-1955), who passed away in the home.
In 1939, Thomas and Annie Quine, both naturalized British citizens, made the fateful decision to vacation in Britain in celebration of their silver wedding anniversary just prior to the start of World War II. The couple were originally scheduled to board another ship for passage home but were able to get on the S.S. Athenia(1923) with an overload of passengers anxious to leave Britain. On September 3, 1939, at around 7:40 p.m. during the second dinner shift, a German submarine torpedoed the transatlantic passenger liner bound for the United States and Canada with 1,103 passengers aboard, 311 of whom were American citizens.
Dr. Quine, who was on deck when the German submarine surfaced and fired, was knocked unconscious. When he came to, he went to his stateroom to find his wife Annie, but she was gone. He was put into a lifeboat with about seventy other passengers. Of the 1,418 aboard, 98 passengers and 19 crew members were killed, including 28 Americans, who were lost partly when a rescue ship’s propeller caught one of the lifeboats. It is believed that Annie Quine was on that lifeboat.
The S.S. Athenia was the first British ship to be sunk by Germany during World War II. The N**i denied attacking the passenger liner, claiming the unarmed Athenia had been sunk by Winston Churhill for propaganda purposes to bring the United States into the war. It was not until the Nuremberg Trials that the cover-up was disclosed. The German military retired the submarine (the U-30) in 1940, and it was eventually scuttled by its crew in 1945 and broken up. A memorial ceremony for Annie Quine was held on November 2, 1939, at St. Andrew Episcopal Church (1213 East Chapman Avenue). Although the United States was neutral, the sinking of the Atheniabrought the war home to Fullerton residents.
Over the decades, the tragic story of the Quines has taken on a life of its own. Propelled by false and embellished stories, such as Victoria Gross’s chapter (“Honeymoon of Death”) in Ghosts of Orange County, the inaccurate story mainly told now is that Dr. Quine constructed the Victorian cottage for his bride, only to have her perish aboard ship on their honeymoon, with a lonely Thomas wandering throughout the dwelling until his death at the age of 91. Other variations have Annie Quine and her husband boarding the RMS Lusitania, sunk by a German U-boat in 1915. Included on Fullerton haunted tours, the home is purported to have been visited by the ghosts of both Thomas and Annie Quine.
The home is one of the few remaining Victorian cottages in Fullerton. It is a blend of Victorian and bungalow architecture, which was a common trait during this period. The large-hipped roof with the front dormer is the dominant feature, and the projecting room on the west side with its low-pitched gable and wood-framed windows are characteristic of the bungalow style. Sometime before 1950, the addition on the front of the home was constructed with its low-pitched table roof. In 1980, the structure was restored and placed on a new concrete foundation when it was converted to use as a professional office.
The home has recently been purchased by a Fullerton resident who wants to preserve the historic dwelling, possibly adding an adjacent community garden.

06/01/2026

📚 Join us for the Fullerton Heritage Annual Meeting!

📅 Sunday, June 7, 2026�🕑 2:00–4:00 PM�📍 Rutabegorz Restaurant, 211 N. Pomona Ave., Fullerton

We're thrilled to welcome local author and historian Chris Epting as our special guest speaker!

Think you know Orange County? Think again. New York Times bestselling author Chris Epting will take us on a fascinating journey through the landmarks, stories, and forgotten places that helped shape our region. He'll also be discussing his newest books, The Hidden History of Orange County and The Lost Landmarks of Orange County.

A longtime columnist for the LA Times and Huffington Post, Chris brings local history to life with stories that will surprise, entertain, and inspire even the most dedicated Orange County history enthusiasts.

This special event is open to Fullerton Heritage members. All are welcome to become members and attend the meeting. New memberships and renewals will be available at the door.

Please RSVP to [email protected].

We hope to see you there!

05/26/2026

Pic-A-Rib (or Pik-A-Rib) and Fly-N-Drive-In: In 1938, Lora Bolton (1918-1988) and her husband, Edgar (“Tex”) Olen Bolton (1913-2007), moved from Texas to Fullerton, where Edgar worked as a café cook. After borrowing $40, the couple purchased the crackerbox-sized Pic-A-Rib Drive-In (922 South Harbor Boulevard) from Carl A. Reeske of Anaheim. The Boltons opened the Drive-in – renamed Tex’s Pic-A-Rib – on April 4, 1940, and after an 18-hour day, took in only $6.45. Undaunted, they expanded the 20-foot by 20-foot building, with room for only five parked cars, into one that accommodated 60 cars (3 carhops) and 46 guests that could be served inside. Despite rationing and food restrictions during World War II, the Pic-A-Rib flourished by marketing its 24-hour service to truckers and defense workers. Initially, Edgar was chief cook and bottle washer on the night shift; Lora was chief cook, bottle washer, and babysitter for their young son on the day shift. At its peak, Pic-A-Rib employees were serving 5,000 guests a week, priding themselves on serving customers within three minutes of receiving their orders. Despite a disastrous fire in October 1947, the Drive-in retained a loyal customer base for over twenty years for its old-fashioned Texas barbecued meats, including chicken, pork, and steaks.

After their arrival in Fullerton, the Boltons rented a place at 234½ West Truslow. In 1955, they purchased a newly constructed postwar Minimal Traditional home at 2319 Brookdale Place, remaining in Fullerton until their retirement in 1971, when they moved to Fruita, Colorado. Tex Bolton ran for the Fullerton City Council in 1958, receiving 1,915 votes, but lost to another restaurant proprietor, Everette C. Farnsworth, co-owner of the Brothers Chuckhouse Restaurant (802 South Harbor Boulevard).

In 1949, the Boltons decided to expand with a second drive-in restaurant – the Fly-N-Drive-In – at the Fullerton Municipal Airport. It would be the Airport’s first restaurant. The Boltons served the same barbeque menu offered at the Pic-A-Rib on South Harbor Boulevard. In keeping with the Western theme, opening night festivities on September 1, 1949, included the world’s largest square dance held on the newly repaved taxi strip; covered wagon rides with wagons loaned from Knott’s Berry Farm; and music by Johnny Downs and His Rhythm Riders. Open 5:00 a.m. to Midnight daily, the Fly-N-Drive-In was not a success, and in 1950, Flesch Enterprise took over, turning it into a coffee shop that offered “Fullerton’s best cup of coffee” and “California’s finest hamburger”. The new format was particularly popular with Fullerton College students, who had more access to cars following World War II.

The Fly-N-Drive-In would be followed by a series of other Airport eateries, including the Airport Restaurant, Young’s Airport Coffee Shop, the Holding Pattern Restaurant, and Tartuffles. On September 24, 2015, the Wings Café (4011 West Commonwealth Avenue), an aviation-themed diner now serving breakfast and lunch, opened at the Airport.

Fullerton Airport Day is scheduled for Saturday, June 6th, 10:00 to 3:00 p.m. (https://www.cityoffullerton.com/government/departments/airport/airport-events)

05/19/2026

Mission Pageant, San Juan Capistrano Mission, 1924/25

In 1903, Shakespearean actor and stage manager Garnet William Holme (1873-1929) was enticed to relocate from England to Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Shakespeare Club. A love of outdoor drama quickly gained hold, and he struck upon the idea of directing large open-air performances at historic sites or spectacular natural settings throughout a state known for its sunny weather (e.g., Carmel, Yosemite, Mt. Rubidoux, etc.). When outdoor drama was at its peak in California in the 1920s, Holme became the undisputed master of the art, writing, producing, and directing one large pageant after another, including spectacular productions in San Pedro, Coronado, San Francisco, Redlands, Palm Springs, and Idyllwild. For his material, Holme relied on classic tales; California novels, such as Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona; and famous historical events, including Francis Drake’s landing in Northern California in 1579 and Juan Cabrillo’s exploration of the California coast in 1542-1543.

For his extravagant outdoor pageants, he relied on a cast of hundreds of amateur and professional actors, often including a dramatic part just for himself. A calm, collected person, Holme had a knack for directing children and amateur actors. The more pageants Holme produced, the more in demand he became, and in the summer of 1924, he was named Pageant Master of the National Parks, spending every summer until his death in the parks. He hoped eventually to have a series of productions that he could move between during different times of the year.

Two of his productions – the Ramona Pageant in Hemet and the Bracebridge Dinner at Yosemite Park – are still ongoing. Designated California’s Official Outdoor Play in 1993, the Ramona Pageant is the oldest surviving example of 1920s California pageantry, and the oldest continuing outdoor drama in America.

When it seemed like every community in Southern California had its own outdoor summer extravaganza, Orange County residents wanted their own original local pageant. In 1924, Holme and Fr. St. John O’Sullivan of the San Juan Capistrano Mission agreed to a Mission Pageant to be presented within the walls of the Mission itself in the rear courtyard, alongside the Serra Chapel, the only surviving building in California where Fr. Serra is known to have said Mass. Starting in the summer, workmen built within the Mission an immense amphitheater that seated 1500 or more Orange County residents. The pageant was first presented on October 4,1924, and continued each Saturday and Sunday for the next four weekends. It returned again in 1925 on Saturdays only, beginning on June 14th and running on into September, with special shows on July 4th and Labor Day. Opening day was declared “Orange County Day” by the Orange County Supervisors, with throngs showing up for the first shows.

Fr. O’Sullivan, known as the “padre of reconstruction” for his work in restoring the Mission, found local financial support for the production. He was in need of substantial funds to continue the Mission’s restoration and found himself agreeing to odd publicity schemes, including the installation of a Cadillac Custom Suburban in front of the Mission’s sacred garden. Holme estimated that half the population of San Juan Capistrano applied for one of the 100 parts. The six episode and epilogue pageant play traced the history of the Mission from its founding in 1776 to the restoration of the property to the Catholic Church by a deed signed by President Lincoln just before his assassination. In addition to the early history of the Mission, the dramatic play included a fiesta, a Spanish fandango, a bullfight staged by children, and remarkable feats of Spanish horsemanship.

When Garnet Holme died of an accidental fall at his Larkspur home in February 1929, it signaled the end of the pageantry sensation that had swept through California.

The San Juan Capistrano Mission celebrates its 250th anniversary on Sunday, November 1, 2026 (https://www.missionsjc.com/250th-anniversary/)

05/12/2026

In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, large adults-only apartment complexes featuring resort-like amenities became a trend. Labeled “swingsites” or “swingles” for swinging singles, they were targeted at young professionals, singles, and childless couples between the ages of 21 to 35. The adult-only apartments, which originated in Southern California in the 1960s, were a dramatic switch from earlier decades when many landlords shied away from young tenants. Early baby boomers entering adulthood created an unprecedented demand for rental housing that was safe, well-serviced, well-equipped, and outside traditional urban centers. The “fun zones” were usually uniform boxed stuccoed units spread across a large complex that emphasized multiple trendy amenities, such as lush plantings, heated and night-lighted swimming pools, hot tubs, snack bars, game rooms, tennis and volleyball courts, indoor golf driving ranges, dance floors, and party rooms. Many of the complexes had an activities director responsible for organizing social events. Advertisements noted that “no computerized dating is necessary, just move in and look around”. By the 1980s, the swingles trend was over.

One of Fullerton’s swingles was The Homestead Apartment Community (1973, 1942 Deerpark Drive), which was arranged into four villages, each with its own central recreation area containing a clubhouse, swimming pool, spa, wet bar, game room, and fireside lounge. Units started at $175. Located off Yorba Linda Boulevard near the 57 Freeway, the 724-unit, two-story garden apartment complex would win a Merit award for Sensible Growth Design and Planning from Better Homes and Gardens and the National Association of Home Builders. Barbecues and winding garden walks were set inside the woodsy complex, earning Hydro-Dig, Inc. of Anaheim a landscape award from the California Landscape Contractor Association. The 28-acre complex was constructed by the Arnel Development Company of Santa Ana, then Orange County’s largest apartment builder. UC Berkeley graduate Kermit Parrish Dorius (1926-1999), a fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and later president of the AIA Orange County Chapter, was selected to design The Homestead. A fifty-year resident of Newport Beach, Dorius worked for various design firms from 1950 to 1960 before founding Kermit Dorius and Associates in 1972 (later JBZ Architecture and Planning). A prolific architect, he designed commercial structures and stylized individual homes for the wealthy, but is best known for his large community-focused projects, including Vista Filare in Irvine; Stonebridge Court in Corona del Mar; the Summer Wind luxury home community in Corona del Mar; and Torrey Glen in the Del Mar Highland master-planned community.

05/07/2026

Heavy Metal Workers- After the Fullerton townsite was laid out in 1887, new settlers with needed skills – carpenters, stonemasons, plumbers, etc. – arrived, but no blacksmiths. Essential to the growth of every early town, blacksmiths were needed for horseshoeing and the making and repairing of farm tools, household items, agricultural and building hardware, and wagon parts. Town founders Edward and George Amerige placed an advertisement in the August 19,1888 issue of the Los Angeles Tribune classified section offering a rent-free shop and water to any blacksmith willing to settle in Fullerton. Austin A. Pendergrast (1863-1949) would become Fullerton’s first blacksmith, followed by Elias H. Stone (1859-1938), Alex Henderson (1866-1929), John R. Gardiner (1873-1958), and William A. Connoly (1891-1945).

Fullerton’s smithies were known as “boss blacksmiths” because they employed a team of men who worked in dimly lit shops so they could better observe the color of heated metal, essential for quality forging. Fullerton’s early horseshoers found the often filthy work grueling and moved on to other occupations. Austin Pendergrast was elected Fullerton Constable in 1897. Elias H. Stone (1859-1938) – who had gained fame at the age of 16 as the youngest driver for the Black Diamond Stage Coach in 1874 – established a livery, then purchased William Porter’s 40-acre ranch in La Habra Valley in 1902. Scottish-born Alex Henderson became an agent for Newell, Matthews and Company of Los Angeles, a manufacturer of wagons, carriages, and farm implements, and later owned his own ranch on East Orangethorpe Avenue. Born in Ontario, William A. Connoly returned to Canada to attend Ontario Veterinary College, graduated, then became an early Orange County veterinarian in 1901. He later owned a large veterinary hospital in San Pedro and served as a Los Angeles humane animal officer.

Fullerton’s most notable blacksmith was John Gardiner, who would own one of the largest blacksmith businesses in North Orange County. He opened a very successful farm implement business on West Commonwealth Avenue; served as Fullerton City Treasurer; and was elected to the first Fullerton Board of Trustees (now the Fullerton City Council) in 1904. He started the J. R. Gardiner Company, Inc., which specialized in real estate, insurance, and loans, eventually acquiring extensive land holdings throughout California, making him a wealthy individual. His brick office, the John R. Gardiner Building (125 E. Santa Fe Avenue, 1922), now occupied by Heroes Bar & Grill, is Fullerton Local Landmark No. 86.

Feeling the pinch from the rising cost of coal, steel, wrought iron, and hardwood – along with freight rate increases – local blacksmiths formed the Orange County Blacksmiths’ and Horseshoers’ Protective Association in 1907, with John Gardiner as president. Members, who met in various shoeing shops around North Orange County, agreed to charge $1.75 per horseshoeing. A price war broke out when J. C. Williams & Son of Orange refused to cooperate with the increases. The Protective Association was widely supported by livery stable owners who often boarded/sheltered the horses, usually receiving a quarter for each horseshoeing job.

In the early 1900s, blacksmith shops were at high risk for fires, which often spread to neighboring buildings. None of Fullerton’s shoeing shops, all situated downtown, have survived. By 1920, Fullerton had one remaining blacksmith shop, but by the mid-1920s, all had been replaced by bicycle and automotive dealers and repair shops.

04/28/2026

In the early 1900s, Fullerton boosters were eager to attract newcomers to the fledgling townsite. City leaders and businessmen mailed out promotional brochures around the country and abroad, but the men also looked to postcards to sell Fullerton as a thriving town. From 1905 to the start of World War I, Americans mailed out billions of softly colored postcards of town views, and they became an effective way to attract future residents.

Postcard salesmen from the Carl Teich Printing Company, the Newman Post Card Company of Los Angeles, and other firms swept into towns to take black and white photographs that were then reworked into postcards and sold to local merchants and booster organizations. Photographs of schools, libraries, and churches were popular because they showed prospective residents that a town had the cultural and educational institutions needed for family life. Because the downtown business area reflected the economic conditions of a town, the commercial core often became the most photographed area. As Alison Isenberg (Downtown America) and other researchers have shown, the colorized and often alluring photographs of central business districts were cleaned up and sanitized to reflect an orderly, regulated, and idealized view of downtown areas. With tiny paint brushes, postcard artists fixed broken-down sidewalks; paved streets; repainted buildings; removed unsightly telephone lines and wires; straightened out sagging awnings; cleaned up cluttered sidewalks; added trees and other landscaping; and obscured or removed signage from undesirable businesses, such as saloons and pool halls. If a town was dependent upon agriculture, wagons laden with produce were allowed (or added) to suggest prosperity and rich soil, but generally people and vehicles were removed or positioned in the rear to project a clean and uncluttered look. Large-scale buildings which showcased wealth were emphasized. Streets were shot at angles, framed, and cropped to make them appear more expansive. The hand-tinting helped to harmonize the whole view. Most of the additions and deletions made by the postcard artists were seamless, but other times the changes are very apparent.

Following suit, early postcards of Fullerton presented touched up views of the downtown business area, far different from the way the commercial core, which was relatively small, actually looked. Fullerton began haphazard street paving in 1913, and the early streets were often rutted, muddy, dusty, and crowded, with little or no night lighting. The downtown area was a hodgepodge of often ramshackle storefronts and cluttered sidewalks interspersed with saloons and billiard halls. There were no zoning laws, and a small fire in one building could quickly spread to an entire block.

04/21/2026

Fullerton Poet Ethel Jacobson- April is National Poetry Month, a good time to celebrate Ethel Jacobson, Fullerton and Orange County’s most famous poet. Born Ethel Marie Sonntag (1899-1991) in Paterson, New Jersey, she was raised in New York City. In 1923, she met and married Louis John (“Jake”) Jacobson (1902-1984) at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. The couple lived in New York City, Delaware, Ohio, and Los Angeles, before moving to Fullerton in 1928, where they remained for the rest of their lives. Jake Jacobson worked in the oil and insurance industries. Ethel passed away at the age of 91, at the Sunny Hills Convalescent Hospital after suffering a fall.

The couple built their dream home at 108 Buena Vista Drive in 1941, using a Garden Grove contractor, Olaf C. Larsen. Located across from the Muckenthaler Cultural Center, the six-room Minimal Traditional home was constructed for $6,600. Built in hilly terrain, the home has a steep setback, with a single-car garage positioned at the bottom of the hill. By 1937, Jacobson was making a comfortable income, enough to afford a modest but custom-built home. She was a legendary cat lover, and at one time, nine of her feline friends inhabited the Buena Vista Drive dwelling.

Initially a homemaker, Jacobson began submitting her light verse to magazines in 1930, with her first accepted piece appearing in The Saturday Evening Post on April 29, 1933. Over her lengthy career, Jacobson composed more than 6,000 verses and 100 humorous articles, which appeared regularly from the 1930s through the 1970s in prominent publications, including Look,Collier’s, the New Yorker, Good Housekeeping, Atlantic Monthly, and the New York Times. She published eight books, including collections of her light verse, often illustrated with her own sketches:Larks in my Hair (1952), Mice in the Ink (1955), I’ll Go Quietly (1966), and Who, Me? (1970). Her poems were published in forty anthologies. She served as a book reviewer for newspapers, specializing in nature and poetry titles, with reviews published in the Chicago Tribune, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the Santa Ana Register. In the 1960s, as Orange County’s unofficial poet laureate, she wrote commemorative odes for Orange County’s Diamond Jubilee (1889-1964) and California Bicentennial (1769-1969) activities, which were published by the Orange County Historical Society in a keepsake edition. She was honored for her work fostering literary culture in Fullerton and Orange County, often collaborating with libraries in selecting and inviting authors to speak.

Her light verse was written in a witty, playful banter style reminiscent of Dorothy Parker, Ogden Nash, and Richard Armour. She was heralded for her ability to capture a situation, moment or reflection in a few short lines. She critiqued overeating in “Fat and Furious” with lines such as: “The verdict stands / Despite our yelpings: / It isn’t glands / But second helpings.” In “Ungracious Hostess” she noted: “Guests should leave / At an hour auspicious / Or stay and help us / Do the dishes.”

Her best-known poem is “Atomic Courtesy”: “To smash the simple atom, / All mankind was intent / Now, any day, / The atom may / Return the compliment.”

Her poetry books will be found in the Local History Room of the Fullerton Public Library.

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