The first female mayor in California. The founding member of the Santa Ana Ebell Club. The author who helped save Jews during the Holocaust. The first female attorney in Orange County. The feminist aviator who made the first accredited solo flight by a woman in the U.S.
The free, one-day “Women in History” tour on Saturday, March 8, was purposely planned for International Women’s Day. Organizers said the tour gave attendees an opportunity to learn about these female trailblazers — businesswomen, activists, art collectors and more — who are all buried at the OC cemetery.
Gravesites of some of the historic women featured in the newest tour at the Fairhaven Memorial Park & Mortuary in Santa Ana. (Courtesy of Cynthia Adair / Dignity Memorial)
Cornelia “Corrie” Ten Boom, author of “The Hiding Place” whose family helped to rescue hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust, is among the women featured in Fairhaven Memorial’s new “Women in History” gravesite tour on March 8, 2025 at the Santa Ana cemetery. (Courtesy of Christopher James / Dignity Memorial)
Gravesites of some of the historic women featured in the newest tour at the Fairhaven Memorial Park & Mortuary in Santa Ana. (Courtesy of Cynthia Adair / Dignity Memorial)
Nellie Gail Moulton, an early landowner in south Orange County who successfully managed the Moulton Ranch, is among the women featured in Fairhaven Memorial’s “Women in History” gravesite tour on March 8, 2025 at the Santa Ana cemetery. (Courtesy of Christopher James / Dignity Memorial)
Gravesites of some of the historic women featured in the newest tour at the Fairhaven Memorial Park & Mortuary in Santa Ana. (Courtesy of Cynthia Adair / Dignity Memorial)
Bessica “Bessie” Raiche, who made the first accredited solo flight by a woman in the U.S., is among the women featured in Fairhaven Memorial’s new “Women in History” gravesite tour on March 8, 2025 at the Santa Ana cemetery. (Courtesy of Christopher James / Dignity Memorial)
Gravesites of some of the historic women featured in the newest tour at the Fairhaven Memorial Park & Mortuary in Santa Ana. (Courtesy of Cynthia Adair / Dignity Memorial)
Dorothy Alice Chandler, the first female deputy in the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, is among the women featured in Fairhaven Memorial’s “Women in History” gravesite tour on March 8, 2025 at the Santa Ana cemetery. (Courtesy of Christopher James / Dignity Memorial)
Fairhaven Memorial Park and Mortuary in Santa Ana. (File photo by Ken Steinhardt, Orange County Register/SCNG)
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Gravesites of some of the historic women featured in the newest tour at the Fairhaven Memorial Park & Mortuary in Santa Ana. (Courtesy of Cynthia Adair / Dignity Memorial)
“Walking through Fairhaven Memorial is like walking through history,” said organizer Cynthia Adair ahead of the event. “These women were the first at what they did, they were breaking ground.”
The golf cart tour also included the stories of women who shaped Orange County landmarks and history: including Dorothy Alice Chandler, the Orange County Sheriff Department’s first female deputy; Virginia Maurine Knott Bender, whose family founded Knott’s Berry Farm; Ada Bowers, who helped establish the Bowers Museum; obstetrician Hester Olewiler, who delivered thousands of babies in Santa Ana at a time when hospital births were rare; and Renée Mary Segerstrom, who brought high-end shopping to Orange County at the South Coast Plaza, and was instrumental in the development of the OC Performing Arts Center.
These women “paved the way for all who would come after them,” tour organizers said.
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