Looking Back

Young Chang

Call them the Thelma and Louise of yesteryear if you like -- two women

whose contributions to Newport Beach were often made as a team and whose

passion for their hometown as citizens made local history.

Mary Burton and Isabel Pease, who are lauded in Newport Beach for

being true watchdogs when it came to all things environmental, are most

known for unearthing the solution to a problem that almost prevented the

existence of Corona del Mar State Beach.

In the 1940s, when the area was known only as Corona del Mar Beach and

owned by Citizens Bank in Los Angeles, the state issued a park land bill

that promised matching funds to cities that wanted to create a state

beach, according to James Felton’s “Newport Beach, The First Century,

1888-1988.”

Pease wanted Corona del Mar Beach -- which was then private -- to

become a public state beach, and she influenced both the state and the

city in a deal that would involve swapping city land for the beach. But

Citizens Bank didn’t want to give up their hold on the beach and make the

property public, for profit reasons. So a City Council hearing was held.

Enter Newport Beach City Attorney Roland Thompson.

He told the council that the city could not give property to another

political organization, which meant the state would be out of luck.

Mary Burton, an attorney, disagreed and informed the council that the

city could hand over property to the state, Felton’s book says.

The hearing was continued.

But Burton discovered something that was obstructing the whole matter

of acquiring the beach. Her husband Phil Burton, who was with the Los

Angeles County Flood Control District, was busy working on a case in

Glendale that involved Citizens Bank. He stumbled upon a letter that

showed that Thompson, Newport’s city attorney, was representing the bank

in the Glendale project.

Mary Burton alerted the City Council of her husband’s find. The bank

and the attorney also were found to be linked in other matters, according

to a Daily Pilot history story written in the ‘90s. Felton’s book said

the bank was accused of giving Thompson work in return for his having

represent its interests when he argued in front of the City Council on

the beach matter.

The ladies got their way and the beach eventually became a state

beach, which it remains to this day.

* Do you know of a person, place or event that deserves a historical

Look Back? Let us know. Contact Young Chang by fax at (949) 646-4170;

e-mail at young.chang@latimes.com; or mail her at c/o Daily Pilot, 330 W.

Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627.