NEWS & NOTESFROM THE

COLMA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION Founded 1993

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I April, May, June 2015 Newsletter #109

Message from Your Board Members

A happy spring to all of you! As weprogress into 2015, (it's going so fast) itwill be your job to elect board-membersfor the next three years. We have twoboard-members who will be up for re-election. They are Frank Maffei andMaureen O'Connor. Three other board-members, Pat Hatfield, Dorothy Hillmanand Ron Doyle are retiring from theBoard. Therefore, a total of five board-members can be elected. We havereceived two letters (enclosed) from twoof our current docents, Margy Baldwinand Esmeralda Harper of their intent torun for two of these three vacantpositions. The Board has recommendedthat the two current members in additionto Margy Baldwin and Esmeralda Harperbe candidates for the board. There is alsoa place on the ballot to write in a name ofanother candidate. Ballots are enclosed.Please be sure to mark your ballot andmail it in before the April 25th deadline.Ballots may also be brought to themeeting on April zs" as they will becounted during the meeting.

Special Dates

April 18, Saturday, 1:00 pm, lecture on theeconomic, political and social changes before andafter the USA joined the WWI war effort. SanMateo County History Museum, Redwood City.650-299-0104.

April 23, Thursday, 3:30 to 7:30, Chamber ofCommerce Business Mix, at the Daly City Hall.

April 25, Saturday, 9 am to 5 pm, Garage Saleoutside Colma Museum, 1500 Hillside Blvd,CHA Fundraiser.

April 28, Tuesday, CHA 2nd Quarterly Meeting.6:30 pm, Speaker Bryan Kingston on "how hemakes movies"

May 2nd& 3rd Saturday and Sunday, 9 am to

5 pm, Daly City Library Book sale at 280 MetroCenter, Space 51, Colma.

May 3, Sunday, 12 noon to 4 pm. Free familyday focusing on the history of the old WoodsideStore, sponsored by San Mateo CountyHistorical Association.

May 20, Wednesday, History Guild of Daly City,Lake Merced, Doelger Center, 7 pm.

, It's A Senior Moment

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VISITORS TO OUR COLMA HISTORICALMUSEUM have come from places as close asColma and as far west as Hawaii, as far east asNew York, as far south as Nicaragua; otherplaces represented are: Ft. Meyers, Florida;Bellingham, WA (Steve Martini, famous mysterywriter whose grandparents lived on GaribaldiStreet); Carbondale, Colorado; Aurora, Utah;St. Louis, Missouri; Athens, Ohio; Montana.

Some of the visitor comments were: amazingmuseum brings back memories - veryinteresting and very educational ...:...wonderful -this place is so cool - a great treasure - great "film - great boxing info - super - back again!wonderful staff.

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MAY WE HAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS?

Eventually we plan to place our quarterly .newsletter online, so please call 650-757-1676 ormail your information to us atcolmahist@sbcglobal.net. With the price ofpostage always going up, we'll save a lot ofmoney if we can email our newsletter. We willkeep your email address confidential and use itonly to send our newsletter "News and Notes"and any announcements pertaining to the Colma'Historical Association. If you wish to continuereceiving our printed copy via "snail mail",that's OK, too!

DONATIONS RECEIVED for THE CHA

Since January we have received the followingitems for our collection. We wish to thank thesepeople for their donation to the museum.

Jamar Coleman: Eternal Home Cemetery cap;Frank Maffei: various copies of railroad andhighway maps; Dennis Fisicaro: metal stencilfrom A. Conti Produce on Junipero Serra Blvd;Darold Fredricks: slides, photos and newspaperarticles of Daly City & Colma area and"Heritage Calendars" from First National Bankof Northern California.

This is called the Chapel Mausoleum as this is where all the services are~~~~~~!~~held for any funeral in the Italian Cemetery. It is built of red travertine. marble over solid cement with rebarb, It was built in 1965and has

withheld the earthquake of 1939, except for one broken shutter and a~ie~eof cracked glas~.With all of the light, Ficaostrees grow beautifullyinside here. The architect was Robert Overstreet who received nationalacclaim for this building and the one built earlier (1987)called theskylight mausoleum just west of this buildina,

ITALIAN CEMETERY - A PROUD mSTORY

Nicholas Marinelli from the Italian Cemeteryspoke to us at our February Quarterly Meeting.The Societa' Italiana DI Mutua Beneficenza wasestablished during the Gold Rush to care for sickand indigent Italians and to provide them decentburial. For years San Francisco Italians wereburied in the City Cemetery of SF at what arenow Lincoln Park and the Palace of the Legionof Honor. In 1898 the Benevolent Societypurchased land in Colma and in 1919, it startedmoving 8,000 Italians to Colma.

Colma's Italian Cemetery was the first Italianburial ground in the US. It has maintained anOld World Italian ambiance over its many yearsof service and current projections are that it has158 more years before it is full! Recently it hasdeveloped a program to build awareness ofItalian Culture. From April through Octoberwalking tours are offered on the secondSaturday of the month, followed by lunch and aQ and A. Call the cemetery office at 650-755-1511 for dates and times. Our speaker Mr.Marinelli has a long history working withcemeteries starting during his high school days.His story was interesting to all of us.

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Individual Family Mausoleums

JEWISH GENEALOGY BURIAL REGISTRY

The SF Bay Arena Jewish Genealogical SocietyP.O. Box 318214 San Francisco, CA 94131-8214(JOWBR) is involved in a most importantinternational collaborative effort to create anindex of all people buried in Jewish cemeteries orlarge Jewish sections around the world. Thisproject permits genealogists easier access tolocating possible ancestors.

Currently, some 4,968 cemeteries have beeneither wholly or partially inventoried and thenumber of burials worldwide that have beencatalogued totals 2,369,359.

Do you have an hour a week to spare? JOWBRneeds help entering the data from scanned listsof local buried Jewish people into a spreadsheet.The Society owns a high volume scanner, andonce the scanning has been carried out, thenames, dates and other data are extracted, youcan help enter the information into a spreadsheetbased on a format created by JOWBR projectmanagers. You never have to leave the comfortof your own home, as we e-mail you the scans towork on at your convenience. For moreinformation, please contact Jeremy Frankel atjfrankel(a)lmi.net or publicitv(a)siba jgs.org

Chapel Mausoleum Italian Cemetery .

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Co-Chairs of Tea Sue Hudson & Maureen O'Conner

Our Fundraiser Tea Of many Themes raised us a profit of $9,870.00

THANK YOUTO OUR

BUSINESS SUPPORTERS

SPONSOR

Allied Waste Service, Daly CityChristy Vault Company, Colma

Commerce Holding Company Inc., ColmaCypress Golf Driving Range, Colma

Cypress Lawn Cemetery, ColmaBruce Newman, DDS, Colma

Deborah Reed Catering, San MateoV. Fontana & Company, Colma

Lucky Chances Inc., Colma

A.S.F. Electric, Inc. Daly CityBroadmoor Property Owner's Assoc., Colma

Recology, San BrunoSouth San Francisco Historical Society

Tea Committee, SSF .Sweet Dreams Bakery, Colma

Torres Flowers, ColmaTrader Joe's, McLellan Drive

South San Francisco

Silver Tea Service in the entry hallfrom Rich and Michael Rocchetta,In_l ..l .!-_ .!-1._: <1.1. __

Helen Fisicaro and Carol TanziProvided and made up over 50Baskets and 22 silent auction items.We made $1,655.00 on the silent auction.

Dana Smith & Judith ChristensenGreeters to all our guests. 180 guests.We sold $5, 490.00 in reservations.

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Selling drawing tickets. Sold atotal of $1,930.00 before & duringLL _ ..J •.•..• , ,...1' fhD tp.~

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Thanks to the 180 guests and volunteers, ourannual Tea fundraiser brought in $9,870.02.

8 Joanne del Rosario

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Board MembersDirectors

Patricia HatfieldEd GrahamRichard RocchettaDorothy HillmanFrank MaffeiRonald DoyleAlice LetcavageMaureen O'ConnorMichael Rocchetta

PresidentVice PresidentSecretaryTreasurerRailroad ConsultantSat. & Sun. DocentSunday DocentFriday DocentComputer expertise

Chairpersons & Areas of Expertise

Pat HatfieldIris BeilanMarianne PetroniDiana ColvinEdward GrahamSusanna HniloSue HudsonFrank Maffei

Newsletter EditorNewsletter StaffNewsletter StaffMembershipBusiness DisplayGarage SalesRefreshments & TeaRailroad & earlyFamily HistoriesTea Fundraiser &Displays.WebsiteComputer, Repair~Deed of Gifts & allof the above.

Maureen O'Connor

Connie O'LearyMichael RocchettaRichard Rocchetta

Quarterly Meetings

2nd Sunday in February ---------2 pmLast Tuesday in April------------6:30 pmJuly 26th----Annual birthday (Weekends at 2 pm& weeknights at 6:30 pm)Last Tuesday in October--------6:30 pm

Help with our meetings.

We appreciate any additions to our refreshmentsand we are always looking for gifts for ourdrawings at our meetings. Call Sue at (415) 585-3545 or the museum at (650) 757-1676. Leave a ,-message.

Museum; Hours

Mondays - ClosedTuesdays through Sunday - 10 a.m. to 3:00 p.m

Letters of Intent

Dear CHA Members,My name is Margy Baldwin and my husbandand I have lived in the area since 1979. Our sonattended local schools and is a graduate of theCollege of San Mateo. He was a volunteer for theColma Fire Department and is currently a DalyCity FirefighterlEngineer.In 2014 I retired after 28 years as a businesssystem analyst for California Casualty InsuranceCompany of San Mateo. With a little more freetime on my hands I joined the CHA in July of2014 and started volunteering as a docent onTuesdays. I have always been interested inhistory and have enjoyed absorbing all that themuseum has to offer. I believe that I have thetime and interest to devote to the ColmaHistorical Association and would like to join theboard of directors in July of 2015. Thank you foryour consideration. Margy Baldwin

To the Colma Historical Association. I am\ ili'Esmeralda Harper who was born on March 25

1953 in Rio Hondo, Texas. I moved to Colma in1965. I attended Little Jeff, Colma and JeffersonHigh School. I married Earl Harper in 2008 andreturned to live in Colma in April of 2013. Ibecame vitally interested in becoming a docent atthe Colma Historical Association museums. Iwanted to be a part of the richness and specialmemories that meant so much too so manypeople who cared for their loved ones and thehistory behind the Memorial Parks. I wouldconsider it an honor to represent any associationthat promotes the values and history of Colma.Thank you for considering me for· boardmembership. Esmeralds Harper

Resignation Letter from Ron Doyle:To the Colma Historical Association: I, RonaldLeo Doyle, as a member of the Board ofDirectors, hear-by wish to resign as a member ofthe Board of Directors this day, Tuesday, March3, 2015. I wish to remain as a member of theColma Historical Association and a Saturdayand Sunday docent. Ronald Doyle

Election Time is here! Please note theBallot below needs to be completed assoon as possible.

All members are entitled to one vote each. For example, if you have a "familymembership", each member of the family has one vote. If you have a "husband andwife membership" (either regular or senior), you are entitled to two votes. If you arean "individual member" (either regular or senior), you may have only one vote.For your membership category, please check the mailing label on you newsletter.

If you cannot attend on election night please mail in the ballot below to:

COLMA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION1500 Hillside Blvd.Colma, CA. 94014

*BALLOTS MUST BE RECEIVED BY APRIL 27th*

(cut here)

Ballot

PLEASE VOTE FOR 4 DIRECTORS OF THE BOARD:

FORFrank MaffeiExp. July 2018

Maureen O'ConnorExp. July 2018

Margy BaldwinExp. July 2017

Esmeralda HarperExp. July 2017

Write in CandidatePrint name

Colma Historical Association1500 Hillside Blvd.Colma, CA 94014

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You are invited to attend the third

quarterly meeting of the CHA at 6:30

Tuesday, April 28, 2015. We will be

having our election of Boardmembers,

and speaker, Bryan Kingston followed

by a buffet dinner.