A life of accomplishments, artistry

Cossie Mechling directed the Pageant of Masters in 1952, sold shell artwork.Friends of longtime Laguna Beach resident Cosma “Cossie” Mechling were saddened to learn of her death on New Year’s Eve. She was 87.

A celebration of her life will be held Jan. 21 at the Laguna Beach Woman’s Club, to which Mechling belonged for years. The family will welcome anyone who shares memories of Mechling. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her name to the club or to Laguna Beach Seniors Inc.

The club also is planning a tribute to Mechling, to be held Feb. 3.

Her contributions to the community were honored this year by the Patriot’s Day Parade Committee, which selected Mechling as the 2006 Citizen of the Year, a fact that has not yet been publicly announced.

“She was thrilled,” daughter Wendy Gildea said.

Mechling died Dec. 31 of complications from the emphysema she had battled for years, a battle that became increasingly difficult last year.

On a good day, her feisty instinct was to soldier on -- at a luncheon in December she said her New Year’s resolution was to live another year.

“I didn’t think she would ever succumb,” her daughter said.

However, on bad days, when Mechling failed to meet her personal goal of accomplishing something worthwhile, she bowed to the inevitable.

“She told us she was ready to go,” said Joy Dickerson, a member of the Beautification Council, on which Mechling served as photographer for about 10 years.

Mechling was involved in numerous other community activities, including Laguna Beach Seniors Inc., often behind the scenes. She created the floral centerpieces that graced the tables at Woman’s Club events and participated in the annual women’s art show, exhibiting and selling her shell art.

Mechling directed the 1952 Pageant of the Masters and performed and directed productions at the Laguna Playhouse.

“She was always interested in anything about Laguna,” daughter Gildea said.

Cosma Means Mechling was born in June 1919 in Hopkinville, Ky. She was named for Cosmo Topper, a popular character in books written by Thorne Smith, later adapted into movies and a television series.

Her father, Lucian, was a tobacco farmer. When the farm failed in the Depression, Mechling’s mother, Belle, said if we have to be poor, let’s be poor in paradise -- Laguna Beach -- which the family had previously visited.

Unfamiliar with ocean tides, the family camped out on the beach too close to the water, which swamped their tent during a grunion run. Mechling and her older brother, Lucian, had a high time chasing the silvery fish.

Mechling’s father supported the family doing odd jobs in construction -- he worked on the Hotel Laguna -- and then became a janitor in the school district. Her mother bought and sold real estate.

Mechling graduated from Laguna Beach High School in 1938, where she played on the tennis team and met her future husband, John P. Mechling.

She attended Santa Ana Junior College, then married Mechling in 1940.

The Mechlings moved for a couple of years to Terra Haute, Ind., his hometown, where they opened a photography business.

Their son, Terry, was born in 1941, their daughter in 1942.

The Mechlings returned to Laguna Beach and continued to work as a team in photography.

He was known as the “Norman Rockwell of photography” for family-oriented magazine covers that were famous in commercial photography circles. He wielded the camera; she sewed the costumes, made up the models and stood behind her husband, coaxing the right expressions from them.

By 1950, they were earning $50,000 a year -- a huge sum in those days. The Mechlings worked in a rented studio across the street from the family home on Thurston Drive.

They divorced in the late 1950s, and Mechling began traveling.

She photographed and played tennis and bridge and collected shells in more than 29 countries. Her last trip was to Panama in 2002.

Mechling always wore hats on her trips.

“She hated the ‘casual look,’” her daughter said.

Mechling made all of her beautifully sewn clothes.

“At the end of each day, she counted her forward momentum,” Gildea said. “She was not a sitter -- she was still bodysurfing when she became a grandmother. She helped build four houses, digging foundations and painting.

“I called her a general in search of an army.”

Besides her daughter, Mechling is survived by her son, Terry Mechling of Colorado; son-in-law, Larry Gildea of Oregon; grandson, Shawn Ryan; great-grandsons, Samuel, Max and Beau; and an army of friends.

“She was probably my oldest friend,” Marthann Newton said.