Peg O'Los Angeles, I Barely Knew You

Saturday, October 17^th was the 10^th annual Archives Bazaar with participants by members of LA as Subject .  This blogger worked at one of the tables, along with about 91 other libraries, archival institutions, historical societies, publishers and private collectors.  The last eight or so Bazaars have been held at USC.  Throughout the day at Doheny Library over 1,200 L.A. history lovers filed through, chatting, inquiring and viewing table displays of photographs and artifacts.  The Library, too, offered at least two excellent exhibits.  Above that were panel discussions with Juan Devis of KCET; the State Librarian of California Greg Lucas; several contributors to a new anthology LAtitudes: an Angeleno's Atlas; and preservation workshops.

During last year's Bazaar Peggy Bernal and her daughter Victoria stopped at my table.  Peggy miraculously knew that I blogged on Los Angeles Revisited and stood before me to tell me she read my blog.  Her compliment warmed me.  She gave me her business card for her own Tumblr blog called Peg O’Los Angeles.  At the moment, I felt a kindred sisterhood.

This year Victoria stood before me.  She told me of her mom’s passing in March. 

On Sunday I visited Peggy’s Tumblr site again.  Her last post was 7 months ago.  I was pleased that she profiled Ina Coolbrith, a librarian and California’s first poet laureate in 1915.  Peggy wrote that Coolbrith lived briefly in Los Angeles and attended school here.

I Googled Peggy to find out the details of her passing but feeling intrusive all the while.  There is a lovely tribute from a colleague at the Huntington Library in San Marino.  Peggy retired in 2007 from her position as Director of Huntington Library Press.  In addition to her long career at the Library, she also spent twenty years writing for Sunset magazine.  I also found the Times obituary.

I went to my own blog and consulted what I had written in March; at the beginning of March I wrote about dogs in 19^th century Los Angeles; I wrote about Edward O.C. Ord on March 24^th.  I hoped that maybe she had a chance to read the post from early March.

The stature of the warm, smiling woman with twinkling eyes who praised my humble blog was unbeknownst to me.

For those who missed the Archives Bazaar or those who wish to discover more interesting morsels of Los Angeles history, the Tumblr site Peg O’Los Angeles is the tangible place to draw upon Peggy Bernal’s passion, commentaries, knowledge and researched discoveries of little gems in history.