Name June Morrall Role Writer | Died January 4, 2010 Books Half Moon Bay memories | |
June Morrall (1947–2010) was a writer and San Mateo County, 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.
Contents
Family
During World War II, 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.
Career
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]
In the early 1980s she worked for Time 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, which covered every corner of San Mateo County, including the early extraordinarily talented group of people behind the growth of Silicon Valley.
Ms. Morrall wrote an eclectic blog 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 the book 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, she lived in El Granada, California. Her companion was Burt Blumert, who died March 30, 2009.
Books
New book coming: Moss Beach, Arcadia Publishing Co.