A LOOK BACK -- JERRY PERSON

There are so many new homes being built in Huntington Beach recently,

and these, as well as our beautiful historic homes, share one thing in

common -- they each need a fire insurance policy for protection.

To obtain a policy, you visited a local insurance agent or broker.

When Huntington Beach was a small beach town of the 1950s, there were

only five insurance offices in town.

Dabney & Dabney at 108 Main St.; Bryon Fenley at 902 Main St.; Huston,

Suter & Huston at 109 Main St.; Chris King at 115 1/2 Main St., and

Robert L. Stricklin, whose office was then located at 1102 Main St.

In 1964, our look back joined Stricklin to protect those homeowners

from damages under the Farmers Insurance agency name of Stricklin &

Jones.

James Russell “Russ” Jones was born July 16, 1923, in Albert Lea, in

the southern part of Minnesota.

Russ grew up on a small Midwestern farm near Webster, S.D.

Jones attended Webster High where he enjoyed many of its outdoor

sports and especially that one sport that all Midwesterners love -- trout

fishing.

In 1941, Jones came to California to work for Douglas Aircraft in

Santa Monica.

When World War II broke out, Jones joined the Army Air Corps and

stayed with them from 1942 to 1946. After leaving the service, Jones

went back to his old job at Douglas and in 1947, he married Alice Marie

Boelens, a girl from Rhode Island.

The Jones family, which now comprises of his wife, Alice, and their

two daughters, Karen and Linda, moved to Garden Grove in 1954 to work in

the construction business as a plasterer to help support the family.

Jones gave up being a plasterer in 1959 to become part of the Farmers

Insurance family.

His daughters were now becoming teenagers, and as you know, teenage

girls need a lot of little extras, new dresses, shoes, cars, etc. When

Leo Merritt left the Stricklin agency in 1964, this left an opening for

Jones to step in, and they formed the agency of Stricklin & Jones in

March 1964 at their new location at 326 1/2 Main St.

“Russ stayed with dad for about three or four years,” said Stricklin’s

daughter, Eileen Knee. “The last I heard from Russ, they were living in

Florida.”

But in that short span of time, Russ Jones joined a long and

distinguished list of historical Huntington Beach insurance protectors.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.