A Look Back -- Jerry Person

This week we are going to look at three generations of the Day family,

and especially at a young couple who have lived in their house on 13th

Street in Huntington Beach for more years than anyone can remember. Herb

Day’s family can be traced all the way back to 1764 and Edward Day Sr.

who was renting land in Charlotte County, Virginia. It was in Steady Run

Township in Keokuk County, Iowa that Clarence Francois “Franceway” Day,

Herb’s grandfather, was born on Oct. 1, 1863. When Franceway turned 23 in

1886 he married Mary Elizabeth “Lizzie” Morrill in a ceremony on March

28, 1886. From this union came six children -- Cecil, Orvil, Zylpha,

Clyde, Edith and Floyd.

The Day family moved west to Westminster in 1905 for the warm sunny

climate. The next year, on Feb. 14, 1906, the family purchased property

at 14501 Locust St. that would become their home. With the Day family

thoroughly entrenched in Orange County we will move on to look at

Franceway and Lizzie’s fourth child, and Herb’s father, Clyde.

Clyde Amos Day was born on June 25, 1892 in Clay Township, Newtown,

MO. Clyde graduated from Westminster grammar school and went on to attend

Huntington Beach High School through his junior year in 1911. Clyde quit school and on June 25, 1914 he married Edna Penhall in Santa Ana and they

were blessed with three children -- Audrey, Annabelle and Herbert. Herb

told me that the Penhalls have lived in Westminster since the 1870s.

Clyde joined the Navy during World War I and on Oct. 1, 1928 succeed

George Abbott as postmaster in that small farming community of

Westminster.

Edna Day would help her husband at the post office in those early

years and after Clyde left the postal service Edna continued working for

the post office until the end of World War II.

It was but a short trip to Garden Grove, where Clyde and Edna visited

Dr. Violet’s office. It was there, on March 20, 1923, their son Herbert

Allen Day was born. I did mention that Clyde had dropped out of

Huntington High in his junior year, well he returned to school to

graduate in 1932 -- just two years before his daughter Annabelle

graduated from the same school.

As Herb grew, he attended Westminster Elementary School and Huntington

Beach High. While at Huntington High Herb excelled at athletics where he

lettered in five different sports. While Herb attended Westminster

elementary and Huntington High, so did a young lady by the name of

Mildred “Millie” Dietz. Herb graduated from Huntington in 1940 and Millie

in 1941. But unlike many couples that drift apart after high school

graduation, Herb and Millie continued seeing each other and in 1942 with

$8 in his pocket and $30 in Millie’s purse, the two eloped to Yuma, Ariz.

to wed on April 12, 1942. Herb said that they had to sleep overnight in

Herb’s car.

It wasn’t long that their first child, Hollie, was born. Herb spent

three years as a sergeant in the Army Air Corps and afterward attended

the University of Southern California. He earned a degree in business in

1951 and a few months later received an even greater gift -- a second

daughter Darsy on Dec. 21, 1951.

A son Jon came along on Dec. 4, 1955 to complete the Day family

household.

Herb worked for Douglas Aircraft for two years, Vultee Aircraft for

two years and for Hancock Oil for several years in the 1950s. In 1960

Herb became Oil Field Superintendent for the City of Huntington Beach for

more than 14 years until he retired to lead a life of ease. But it is not

Herb that most residents over 35 remember, no, it is Millie or should I

say Millie’s special “Strip Sauce.” Millie opened a beach concession

under the Pav-a-lon in the 1960s where she sold tortilla strips, tacos

and taquitos to many of our residents and visitors. Main Street Farmers

Insurance Agent Andy Arnold recalls going to the beach as a young boy and

having strips, but he said that somehow he always got sand in his strips.

Herb said that it was not unusual on a summer weekend to go through 600

dozen tortillas and he said that he had to make those tortilla strips

himself. Howard Lutz, manager of the Pav-a-lon put Millie in charge of

the complete lower floor. The upper floor at that time was converted to

a skating rink. A few years ago the Huntington High Class of 1960 held

its reunion at Lake Park Clubhouse and for the event Millie made up her

special strip sauce -- many, many gallons of her strip sauce. Huntington

Beach resident Rudy Mikaelian remembers how good those strips were when

he was a young man. And so we’ll leave these two young sweethearts and

their rich heritage for now and wish these lovebirds of 60 years all the

happiness that life can bestow.

* 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.