June Morrall
June Morrall (1947-2010) was a writer and San Mateo County [northern California] historian. The native San Franciscan authored two books, "Half Moon Bay Memories: The Coastside's Colorful Past" and "The Coburn Mystery", an historical account of murder and mayhem in the quaint little village of Pescadero, California. She was considered a "popular historian" who strives to make local history fun to read as well as accessible.
June wrote and produced The Mystery of Half Moon Bay, a one-hour historical documentary for KCSM-TV. At the time agricultural Half Moon Bay was suddenly discovered, growing and changing from a rural landscape to a suburban setting, igniting controversies between environmentalists and subdivision builders. Some of the interviews with locals, now gone, have been reproduced on her website.
In the early 1980s she worked for Time Magazine's bureau chief, Bill Doerner, in the San Francisco bureau—initially as an office manager/photo editor, later as a stringer when both high tech and AIDs became the big stories of the day. She was also a stringer for Newsweek.
For seven years [1997-2004] she wrote "Other Times", a full page historical column for the San Mateo County Times, that covered every corner of San Mateo County, including the early extraordinarily talented group of people behind the growth of Silicon Valley.
During WWII June's family fled their home in Berlin, Germany, finding a temporary refuge in Shanghai, China where they lived for nine years. June touched on this in an article for LewRockwell.com.
Ms. Morrall wrote an eclectic blog http://halfmoonbaymemories.com/ blending colorful county history and vintage photographs with her own writerly observations and past experiences researching history. She contributed significant new material to the history of San Mateo County.
She also blogged at pescaderomemories.com and princetonbytheseamemories.com. She wrote a book called Princeton By The Sea, published by Arcadia and had just finished an Arcadia book about Moss Beach to be published soon.
Ms. Morrall died on January 4, 2010. Her companion was Burt Blumert, who died on March 30, 2009.
Books
Half Moon Bay Memories: The Coastside's Colorful Past, 1978 Moonbeam Press Table of contents
The Coburn Mystery: N. California's Unsolved Murder, 1992 Moonbeam Press
Princeton-by-the-Sea, 2008 Arcadia Publishing Co.
New book coming: Moss Beach, Arcadia Publishing Co.
Articles
Time magazine, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,952020,00.html
LewRockwell.com, http://archive.lewrockwell.com/blumert/blumert107.html
Woodside Almanac, http://www.almanacnews.com/morgue/2002/2002_02_27.jackling27.html
San Francisco Chronicle http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/04/SPGAMH2NMG1.DTL
Sybil Easterday, Sculptress" http://www.halfmoonbaymemories.com/category/sybil-easterday/
Marine View Tavern, Moss Beach: http://www.halfmoonbaymemories.com/category/billy-grosskurth/
World-famous magician Channing Pollock/San Gregorio Farms: http://www.halfmoonbaymemories.com/category/channing-pollock/
Artichokes: http://www.halfmoonbaymemories.com/category/artichokes/
Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society (historic jazz house): http://www.halfmoonbaymemories.com/category/bach-dancing-dynamite-society/
Prohibition: http://www.halfmoonbaymemories.com/category/prohibition/
Half Moon Bay history (general) http://www.halfmoonbaymemories.com/category/half-moon-bay-history/
Shipwrecks: http://www.halfmoonbaymemories.com/category/shipwrecks/
Obituary: http://coastsider.com/index.php/site/news/4097/
Historical Documentary
The Mystery of Half Moon Bay, 1980 KCSM-TV
CBS5.com: Eye on the Bay: Pillar Point: http://cbs5.com/video/?id=56769@kpix.dayport.com