Dr. Donald E. Rickabaugh - 11A3

Dr. Donald E. Rickabaugh

October 24, 1922 - October 23, 2010

Obituary

Dr. Donald E. Rickabaugh was the middle of five children, with two older brothers, and twin younger sisters. He was born October 24,1922. Max, the oldest, was a pilot and instructor in Big Springs, Texas for many years. He survived one crash by a student, but not the second, many years later. Al was a builder for many years and lived in Corona del Mar in his latter years until he died of cancer in his 70s. Betty Harmer and May Frazee are identical twins and both became nurses taking their training in Boulder, Colorado. May currently resides in Wildwood, GA and Betty in Witt Springs, AR.

Don graduated from the Loma Linda Medical School in 1945 as Physician and Surgeon and joined his father, H.B. Rickabaugh in his medical practice in Alhambra for many years. HB used to say that Don was his favorite partner! They loved working together. Don continued the medical practice after his father died until he retired in 2004, in Newport Beach.

While in medical school, Don became very good friends with a classmate, Alan Harmer. He told the twins that one of them needed to marry this man, he just didn't know which one! Betty did, and was very blessed.

Since Willeta May Rickabaugh, Don's mother, had 5 children in 5 years she came up with the bright idea of having a family orchestra. The children loved playing together and became well known in the Alhambra community, playing for churches, country clubs and many other places. Both parents played musical instruments with them. When they got older and went their separate ways they often reminisced of the orchestra times and thought of these as some of their most pleasant childhood memories.

Don had a spark of mischief. He was not above teasing his younger sisters. It really is a wonder they survived him. Yes, they loved him dearly. He even visited them during their nurses training in Boulder, Colorado, and comforted them in their homesickness. As he matured he developed the attitude of complimenting and praising people for their accomplishments or their thoughtfulness. He was a cheer leader in that sense.

Don lived a very active life and enjoyed running, swimming and lifting weights. He loved music and played piano, and cello in his youth. He was a member of Oxford Club, Los Angeles Griffith Observatory, The Performance Art Center in Orange County, the National Rifle Association and the 552 club at Hoag Hospital. He was a conservative Republican. He was a Mormon at heart.

He had a passion for reading, and his last book was Moby-Dick. He did not finish it, but read 435 of 851 pages.

He knew the names of many stars and constellations, and loved everything about the Universe. He could tell you all about the Stars and Planets and their names and places. Saturday, October 23rd was a full moon.

Don loved listening to music, and was especially fond of Classical Music. His favorite composer was Mozart. The day of his death he was listening to Piano Concerto No 21. in C Major.

Don will be greatly missed by his wife Mireya, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, sisters and brother, nieces, nephews and loving friends.

Arrangements under the direction of Pacific View Memorial Park and Mortuary FD1176, Corona Del Mar, CA.

Dignitymemorial.com 

Laguna Federal Highlights

A MAN CALLED ISAAC

By Mildred Yorba MacArthur

Isaac Jenkinson Frazee could have been the first artist to make a sketch of Laguna Beach, according to his widow, who has just written her memoirs which she calls, “Journeying Through The Years.” She signs herself Mrs. Isaac J. Frazee, which she was, for 57 devoted years. Publication date has not yet been set.

Isaac first say Laguna in 1873, as a boy of 15 when he came with his parents, and they camped in the beach. He was entranced by the sun, the sand and the hills that rolled down to the sea., It was in Laguna that he made his first sketch, which he kept and later gave to his bride, a native of Louisville, Kentucky. She has kept it ever since. Isaac went on the become one of California’s finest and most collected artists.

The Frazees built a life for themselves in the back country of San Diego County, near Bonsall, where they reared their seven children.  It was there in 1915 that he wrote and produced his Indian Pageant called “Kitshi Manido.” The entire village helped him build a 500-seat amphitheater near his home. The cast was made up of neighbors, and his daughter Arlitta (sic)* has a lead part, as Majella the Wood Dove.

Musicians were brought in from Los Angeles and they were trained and directed by W. M. Bower, a noted violinist and composer. The production was a sellout. People came in buggies, hay wagons, on horseback or on foot, and some even ventured in by car, churning up the dust in their wake.

“In 1921,” writes Mrs. Frazee, “We loaned our pageant to the Art Association of Laguna Beach and all that summer the artists dropped their work and joined with us to produce it for six nights, with great success. It was given in a magnificent eucalyptus grove and over $3,600 was taken in at the gate.

“After the overhead was paid, a nice little sum of nearly $1,000 was given to the Art Association to help build the beautiful Art Gallery which now adorns Laguna Hills.  The Art Association presented us with a life membership and a lot in Laguna.  Again in 1927, the Pageant was produced for 21 nights, by this same community group.”

That certainly was a great success in the days when many artists made their homes in tents. Cows were tethered on empty adjoining lots, and bawled vociferously when ready to be milked and their owner had overslept. Streets were short and ran in all directions, coming to dead ends, much as they still do. There was evidence of much visiting among artists where they left their paths through the green grass of spring or the dust of summer. There were no street lights so most people carried lanterns. There was no highway.

On Saturday nights the artists gathered at a little art gallery to admire or criticize their fellow painters. There was a small dance hall, Mrs. Frazee recalls, with a sign over it that said, “Clean Dancing Every Night Except Sunday.”  J. N. Isch owned the village grocery store and one corner of the room was reserved for the post office, over which Mrs. Isch presided.  Long lines of people gathered each day for the mail to be brought in, via stage.  The waits were long, but the visiting was most enjoyable.

Nell Gail Moulton told me that her happiest memories were of her horse-driven carriage, with her two tiny daughters, Charlotte and Louise. She took lessons from that great teacher and artist Anna Hills, while the children romped on the beach.

The Frazees finally settled in Laguna for good in 1927. By then it was a haven for artists from everywhere, including William Wendt, Julia Bracken Wendt, Edgar Payne, William Griffith, Joseph Kleitch, Frank Coprien, Alice Fullerton, David Criesbach, Donna Schuster, Clarence Hinkle, Mary Sherer, Charles Patridge Adams, Thomas Hunt, Gail Moulton, Irving Manoir, Anna Hills and Karl Yens.

Most were friendly, but I like the story that is told of the young artist on his first day in Laguna, who came upon a fellow artisan and he said, “Hello there, brother. I’m an artist too, just in from Chicago yesterday. My name is . . .” The old-Laguna-hand said, “What of it?” and he picked up his canvas and walked off.

Another visitor, a plump little person, fared better. She sided p to an artist and stood so close that he could barely move his brush as she overshadowed his canvas. Finally the artist glanced up and said, “What do you think of it?” Without hesitation she replied, “Oh, I guess maybe it will look better when it dries, won’t it?”

In 1968 one of Isaac’s earliest paintings was given to the Santa Barbara Mission. It was painted in 1898, of a Franciscan Friar, Joseph O’Keefe, of Mission San Luis Rey at Oceanside, where the Frazees then resided.  They and all the other families thereabouts helped with the restoration of the Mission. An interested onlooker was a duck that swam in a small nearby pond and became very attached to Father O’Keefe. Artist Frazee sketched the scene, which he later painted.

I shall now turn to Elizabeth Frazee Worsley’s final communication in 1968. She was the eldest daughter of the Frazees. She and her husband, Christian, delivered the painting to Padre-historian, Rev. Maynard Gieger at Santa Barbara Mission. She said, “I had a distinct feeling that all is well, and that my ‘Padre With a Duck’ had at last come to his right resting place.”

She continued, “You can see many of Father’s paintings at Chapman College at Orange, Laguna Beach Museum of Art, Bowers Museum at Santa Ana, Laguna Federal Savings and Loan Association’s home office, and the Serra Museum at San Diego. The latter also has two big scrapbooks about him, and his old desk. Shipped around the Horn in 1849, it was once the property of California’s renowned Circuit Court Judge Benjamin B. Hayes. His history-laden scrap books I gave to the Huntington Library at San Marino. He and Mother lived a full life among their friends in Laguna, he with his painting and Mother with her writing.”

Isaac Jenkinson Frazee, the gentle man of many and varied talents, left his lasting imprint upon his beloved California where he came as a youth in 1873. He was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on November 3, 1858. (sic)** He died in Laguna Beach on June 23, 1942. Lest we forget, he brought Laguna its first Festival in 1921.

* His daughter, Helen Frazee Bower, had the same role as Arlitta a famous opera singer who performed in the 1927 edition of the pageant.

** Isaac's birth date was November 30th, 1858 His place of birth isn't clearly identified in the records. I have Winchester, Indiana - which is near the Ohio border. Google also mentions an obsolete location called "New Winchester" which was 18 miles west of Indianapolis. Isaac's grandmother, uncle, and cousins were all living near Rushville, Indiana about 30 miles south east of Indianapolis. They are listed in the 1860 Census as living in Decatur, which is also near the Ohio border, but up near Fort Wayne.  His father did, just before moving to San Bernardino in 1873, own a book and stationary store near the center of Indianapolis.

Huell Howser's California Gold - The Ranunculus Field Episode

I can't tell you why Mr. Howser only interviews Mike Mellano and Paul Ecke Jr. back when this was filmed in Spring of 1994 as both Ed and Bob Frazee were alive at the time, but because of that, he doesn't get any of the history or the production of the flowers.  Our loss.

The segment on the Flower Fields begins after 11:30.

To open the page click on the photo of the ranunculus.

Michael O'Bannon Bower - 2421

Bower, Michael O'Bannon

Michael O'Bannon Bower, 68 years old of Fountain Valley, formerly of Buena Park, passed away on Sunday, June 18, 2017, after several years of battling diabetes, congestive heart failure and dementia. He was the loving husband of Jennifer Louise (Robison) Bower who passed away on March 11, 2016.

Mike was born on June 13, 1949 in Los Angeles, California to the late David and Barbara (O'Bannon) Bower. Mike grew up in Norwalk, California, and attended Anna M. Glazier School, Los Alisos Intermediate School and graduated in 1967 from Norwalk High School. At that time, he continued his education getting his A.A. at Cerritos Community College, his B.A. from California State University, Fullerton, and his M.A. from the University of Southern California. All of his degrees were in the fields of communications and public relations.

Mike was employed by the American Cancer Society, Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District and Walnut Valley School District as a public relations officer. He also spent 19 years owning his own public relations and marketing company, Bower Communications, Inc. He also spent several years as a professor at Vanguard University, Pepperdine University, and Biola University and as an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California, Rio Hondo College and California State University, Fullerton and Dominguez Hills campuses. In the 1970s he had a television program called Sports Mike in Orange County as well as a Sports Mike column in local newspapers. He won many awards for his work in journalism and public relations.

Mike was an avid sports fan especially for all USC teams, and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Lakers and Rams. He spent many hours collecting baseball cards and other memorabilia and eventually opened his own sports shop, Sports Mike, in Cypress, CA. If possible, he never missed a game whether he could attend or watch on television. Mike also coached his son's baseball teams in Buena Park for many years.

Mike loved musical theatre and spent many years acting in musical productions held throughout Orange County including Curtain Call Dinner Theater, Huntington Beach Playhouse, La Habra Depot and Vanguard University. Some of his favorite roles included Jacob in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Arvide in Guys and Dolls, and Lazar Wolf and the Rabbi in Fidder on the Roof. Mike was well known as Santa Claus throughout Southern California where he spent each Christmas season being Santa Claus to many children with Definitely Dickens and Clowning Around. You could find him at corporate parties, South Coast Plaza, Macy's and many other venues.

Mike was a devoted Christian who was very involved in the churches he attended throughout his life. He sang in the choirs, was a soloist and taught Sunday School. He attended St. John's Presbyterian Church in Compton as a child. He and his wife raised their children at New Life Community Church in Artesia and attended Christ Community Church in Buena Park in their later years.

Mike is survived by his three children and their spouses, Timothy and Mariah Bower, Jonathan and Erin Bower, and Kimberly and Jonathan Proctor. He was blessed to have been able to enjoy his four grandsons, Isaac, Elias, Miles and Jude. He was looking forward to the birth of his 5th grandchild this fall. He is also survived by his two sisters and their husbands, Jennifer and William Collins, Debi and Hector Garcia, nephews Christopher Robison and Cody Garcia, and niece Katina Robison.

A memorial service will be held at 12:00 Noon on Thursday, June 29, 2017, at Christ Community Church at 6575 Crescent Avenue, Buena Park, CA. Luncheon following at the church. Donations may be made to The Izzy Foundation, P.O. Box 2326, Providence, RI 02906 in memory of his great-niece, Isabelle Wohlrab who lost her battle with cancer at 3 years of age.

Published in Orange County Register on June 25, 2017

May Steensma Frazee - 111S2

Life Story

May Steensma Frazee

March 9, 1924 – February 20, 2016

Willeta May Rickabaugh was born on March 9, 1924, in Alhambra, California. Her mother had delivered a baby girl named Harriet Elizabeth. The doctor was searching for a placenta, thought he had found it, but it was a second baby girl! She wouldn’t cry and was laid aside so the doctor could attend to mother when an elderly retired doctor poked his head in the door of the surgery suite and called out, “Need any help in here?” 

“Yes, take care of that one over there stat!” Prepping quickly, the old doctor grabbed a can of ether and threw some on her chest. Baby May spontaneously screamed her shock and disapproval!

Thus began the interesting lives of identical twin girls. May and Betty had three older brothers – Max, Al and Don – who were close in age, so their dear mother had 5 children in 5 years! There were times growing up when even the parents could not be sure which girl was Betty and which was May! But their brother Don always knew and clarified.

The twins had happy memories of their childhood – lots of camping trips, homeschool that included a few other children as well, a family orchestra that practiced regularly and played often for churches and other events. May had about 9 years of piano lessons. She played piano or organ for church services most of her life until she was past 80.

May and Betty graduated from high school at La Sierra Academy, and both enrolled in Pacific Union College to take pre-nursing. Their beloved father had waited until all the children were gone from home to fulfill his pre-determined plan to divorce his wife and start a new life with a new wife! The twins beloved mother moved out of her home and joined them at Pacific Union College.

In two years May and Betty graduated from PUC after which Mom and the twins moved to Boulder, Colorado for the girls 4-year nursing course. They all loved hiking together in the Colorado Rockies! Mom had a beautiful high soprano singing voice. They loved going up Boulder Canyon where Mom would sing at the top of her lungs, accompanied by Betty on her violin and May on her accordion.

After 2 years of college and 3 years of nursing school, the girls both took a much needed break. Mom’s good friend, Elder Meade McGuire, recommended she take the girls to a new little place in northern Georgia called Wildwood Sanitarium and Medical Missionary Institute. The year was 1945. Both girls benefitted by almost a year of the program at Wildwood.  Their mother spent the rest of her life, 40+ years, at Wildwood. She became best friends with Mother Frazee, who did not enjoy the best of health. She passed away in 1950. In 1952 Dad Frazee proposed marriage to his late wife’s best friend. So the twins became step sisters to Bill Frazee, since their mother married his father!

Betty and May both finished their nursing degrees and became Registered Nurses. Betty finished at Greeneville, Tennessee, while May preferred to go back to Boulder, Colorado to finish her course.

May then began her nursing career as an operating room nurse in Porter Memorial Hospital in Denver, Colorado. She was church organist for the SDA Church in Arvada, a suberb of north Denver. She noticed a handsome young man who attended regularly with two little boys in tow. All were so neat, clean and trim, she was well impressed! Apparently he also took note of the beautiful organist as a friendship soon developed into romance and a wedding date was set for March 25, 1951.

May took her beloved fiancé, Henry Steensma, all the way from Colorado to Wildwood, Georgia, for the wedding. Betty, a year earlier had married Dr. Alan Harmer, the first Medical Director here at Wildwood. Betty was very near to delivering their daughter, Sylvia, on March 27!

Back in Denver the happy couple set up housekeeping in an apartment near Porter Memorial Hospital where Henry secured a job in the maintenance department, while May continued her work as an O.R. nurse.  After 3 months of settling into married life,  Henry’s two little boys, Henry Jr. and Ray, joined them. The boys had spent the previous 4 months with Henry’s mother, their Grandma Steensma.

Just before Henry and May’s first wedding anniversary, Baby Dona arrived on March 14, 1952. Dona was only three months old when her father, Henry, decided to move his family, from Colorado to northern California. This move was prompted by the doctor telling his mother that if she wished to live much longer, she must move to a lower altitude climate.  Grandma Steensma’s health flourished in California where she lived well into her 80’s.

The Steensma family lived near the St. Helena Sanitarium, not far from Pacific Union College for about six years where Henry, a builder by trade, built and sold a couple houses and helped build the new large Sanitarium Seventh-day Adventist Church. In 1956 Nancy was born, rounding out the family with 2 boys and 2 girls! In 1958 they accepted a call to move to Healdsburg, about 40 miles away to help build Rio Lindo Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist boarding high school. In 1962 the Steensma family accepted a call from Wildwood to move back to Colorado to help build Eden Valley Institute, a medical missionary training institute in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains near Loveland, Colorado.

May worked as Director of Nurses at Eden Valley and Dona and Nancy attended the Eden Valley Elementary School. Every other weekend during the summer months, Henry took his family on weekend camping trips way up in the high mountains. We have many happy memories during those years, of camping, hiking, cooking over  campfires, singing and family worships around the campfire.

By late 1969 Henry was diagnosed with colon cancer, underwent emergency surgery to remove it, followed by rapid recurrence and death by May 14, 1970, at the early age of 47! Henry had made arrangements with Bill Frazee to watch over his girls: May, Dona(18) and Nancy (14). The boys were already on their own. Henry died in peace and in the Blessed Hope of the resurrection.

 With the passing of May’s beloved Henry, May and Dona and Nancy moved from Colorado to Wildwood. Dona was just graduating from high school and had already accepted an invitation from Uncle Bill Frazee to train in as his personal secretary. Nancy at 14 pursued her education. And May gradually became more and more involved in the Frazee’s ministries. So Bill and Helen Frazee along with May and Dona Steensma were a team of 4 in ministry both at home and abroad for 16 years until Helen was suddenly taken from us in 1986.

I wonder who was most surprised when a year later Bill Frazee proposed marriage to May Steensma!  He was considerably older than May, and about 12 years into the development of Parkinson’s disease. But he truly loved her, and they had 9 productive years together before he quietly passed to his rest in 1996 at 90 years of age.

May was still 72 years young. She began filling in the much-needed position of managing the WDF sermons ministry, including re-mastering sermons from original reels to cassette masters for duplicating. She was a great one to visit the lonely, the sick, the discouraged.  She played the organ for church. She mowed her own lawn and kept a small vegetable garden as well as flower beds. She was a life-long hiker. May was a life-long caregiver. For over 35 years May and Dona shared the care of 1-3 elderly folks at a time in their Wildwood home, taking turns driving the Frazees to his speaking appointments. May possessed the gift of helps, the gift of listening, the gift of encouragement.

May would spend her last 10 years requiring care from others due to severe and multiple and recurring compression fractures in her back! Many young people who cared for her would be influenced for life by her faith, her love, her personal interest in them, her confidence in God’s love for each one personally and in the power of the Word of God to restore health in all dimensions. She had life-long habits of memorizing scripture and teaching others the powerful benefits of doing likewise. May passed peacefully on February 20, 2016, of natural causes due to age and confinement.  She was ready, she was at peace. 

Blessed rest, dear May! 

John C. Frazee - 4321 & Family "The Very Early Years"

Beatrice “Betty” Elizabeth Frazee - 211S

Beatrice “Betty” E. Frazee

Beatrice “Betty” E. Frazee, a resident of Bend since 1981, died July 23 at a local foster home following an extended illness. She was 79.

A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. July 28 at Bend Church of the Nazarene, of which she was a member. The Rev Ron Wells will officiate. A graveside service will be conducted at 1:15 p.m. July 31 in Riverside (Calif.) National Cemetery.

The daughter of Harris and Ruth Lillian (Moore) Butters was born in Lansing, Mich., on Sept. 26, 1916.

She married Wilton J. Frazee in San Marcos, Calif. on Aug 4, 1979. He survives at the family home.

Other survivors include a daughter, Shirley Ann Day of Bend; two sons, Loid Leo Watts of Hacienda Heights, Calif., and Bill Frazee of Arizona, 12 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.

Mrs. Frazee was preceded in death by a son, George and a brother, Leo.

Memorials to Hospice of Bend, 1303 NW Galveston Ave., Bend 97701, would be appreciated.

Niswonger-Reynolds Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Bend Bulletin July 24, 1996 p. C-10