Tales of Roy E. June
Roy E. June was a city attorney for the city of Costa Mesa and a great storyteller. We've compiled a few tales from his 1979 oral history.
Bessie Lounsberry: A Most Remarkable Woman
Bessie Nell (White) Lounsberry (1886-1972) made many important contributions to the civic life of 1930s-50s Costa Mesa. She compiled the city directory, worked local elections, and served on the Costa Mesa Citizen’s Council, along with other volunteer roles. Her seven-year beautification campaign led to the planting of 1,026 trees. She was honored for her decades of selfless service with the Costa Mesa Historical Society’s second Living Memorial Award in 1973.
Remembering Barbara Panian
Society member and volunteer Barbara Panian passed away on March 30, 2018. Residents of Costa Mesa since 1956, Barbara and Hank Panian raised their family in the College Park neighborhood. Long-time docents at the Diego Sepulveda Adobe, Barbara and Hank were involved in the early days of the Society and attended many community events over the years. We offer our sincere condolences to Hank & family for their loss.
1918-1919 Flu Hits Southland, Patient Hits Bottle
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the 1918 influenza, one of the worst pandemics in history, which claimed the lives of up to 100 million people and infected 500 million worldwide. About 300 died out of Orange County’s population of 30,000. While the mortality rate here was lower than elsewhere, the demand for nurses still outstripped the supply, leading the chairman of the Santa Ana Red Cross to plead for volunteers to “meet the call of humanity” and tend to the sick.
Alice King (later Eastman), a young philanthropist from Costa Mesa, answered the call. But it didn’t turn out the way she expected. Decades later, she told the story to our own Mary Ellen Goddard:
Tragedy at the Riverside
During a heatwave on August 5, 1917, two cousins, Robert Gisler’s daughter Elizabeth, 11, and Sam Gisler’s daughter Mabel, 10, went to the Santa Ana River with Elizabeth’s sister Lucile, 6, to play in the water. The two older girls were wading in the shallows of the channel, laughing and playing, when they suddenly lost their footing and stepped into a large hole. They struggled to find a foothold in the deep drop-off, while their cries for…
How do you pronounce Gisler?
Gisler Avenue in the north side of Costa Mesa sees more traffic, perhaps, than any other street of its size in the city. The 1.7 mile road is lined with subdivisions, schools, a city park, and hugely popular restaurant chains like In N’ Out, Raising Cane’s, Denny’s, and Chik-Fil-A.
Nat Rochester leads the color guard at the "Homecoming of Company L," April 6th, 1918, on 4th Street in Santa Ana. Source: "The Story of Company L: Santa Ana's Own", 1958.
Nat Rochester, Costa Mesa War Hero
In the Argonne Forest, October 8, 1918, Sergeant Nathaniel N. Rochester became one of the first Costa Mesans to die for his country. Nat, as he was called, moved to what was then Harper in 1908 at age ten. His parents were artists, but he was drawn to patriotic duty, like the great-great grandfather for whom he was named, the Revolutionary War colonel and founder of Rochester, New York. He enlisted with Company L, “Santa Ana’s Own,”…