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November 16, 2005 Photo Essay:
Unveiling of Headstone for Henrietta Rose,
Mount Hope Cemetery, San Diego
By
Donald H. Harrison
Shortly after 10 a.m., Wednesday, Nov. 16, at
Mount Hope Cemetery, San Diego, Norman
Greene, a co-founder of the Louis Rose
Society, began the ceremony to unveil a headstone for Henrietta
Rose, whose grave had been unmarked since her burial in 1957.
Among the score of people who gathered for the commemoration were Sam
Zeiden, with video camera in front row; and Arlette Smith,
in second row. Others whose faces are distinguishable in this profile shot
are, in first row (right to left), San Diego School
Board Member John de Beck, San Diego Education Association President Terry Pesta;
second row: Eric Poliak, Norman Manson,
and Rabbi Scott Meltzer.
The various speakers stressed areas of commonality with Henrietta Rose. For
example, de Beck noted that he had gone to school
in the Roseville area, where Henrietta had begun her 45-year teaching career in
1895. He said Cabrillo Elementary School was
the successor school to Roseville Elementary, where Henrietta was the first
teacher. Henrietta went on to teach at Middletown and
Sherman Elementary Schools. Pesta, at right, spent many
years at Sherman as a teacher before becoming an executive of the
San Diego Education Association. After Sherman Elementary, Henrietta
taught English and Spanish at Roosevelt Junior High
School. She is shown below in the second row, second from left, in Roosevelt's
1938 faculty photo:
Richard Levi, 88,
a former student of Henrietta Rose's was to have spoken at the ceremony, but had
to cancel because he was not feeling well.
Nevertheless, Henrietta's tenure at Roosevelt was remembered by Jean Brown
Woodward, whose father, T. Malcolm Brown, had been the principal
while Henrietta was there. Mrs. Woodward, 80, left, recalled
that Henrietta "in stature, was very small" and that "she had a
decided limp, a very
difficult time walking—that was hard for her. She was a lovely
person." Mrs. Woodward said she also remembered a "little house"
where Henrietta
had resided at the corner of Madison and Arizona Streets. Another aspect
of Henrietta's life was her Masonic activities. Her father Louis Rose had
been a founder of San Diego Lodge 35 F. & A.M. and Henrietta, in 1901,
became worthy matron of the Southern Star chapter of the Order of the
Eastern Star. That chapter since has merged with the La Paloma Chapter, of
which Liz Moffat , right, of Sun City is a past matron. Ms. Moffat's
group had joined with the Louis Rose Society in paying for the plaque
commemorating Henrietta's life.
With various representatives of the media on
hand to record the moment (including "About San Diego"
storyteller Ken Kramer of KNSD
(Channel 39/ Cable 7); Marsha Sutton (Voice of San Diego), Ann M. Garwood
of Hillquest, and a crew from KBNT Television which interviewed
Mt. Hope Cemetery Manager David Lugo in Spanish about the event, a shroud was
pulled off Henrietta's headstone by Pesta, left, Greene,
Moffat and de Beck. Clockwise from the top left, the plaque bears the
logos of the Louis Rose Society for the Preservation of History,
the Order of the Eastern Star, San Diego City Schools, and the San Diego
Education Association. The boulder was donated by KRC Rock
of Lakeside and the plaque design was donated by Karman Ltd. of Woodland Hills,
California. Greene made a point of praising cemetery
manager Lugo and cemetery worker Chuck Warren for helping in the stone's
placement, and congratulated Society members Robert Baum,
and Dr. Paul Thomas for shlepping the stone with Greene from Lakeside to
the cemetery. Click here for a larger view
of the plaque
After the stone was unveiled, Rabbi
Scott Meltzer of Ohr Shalom Synagogue commented that "we
in San Diego are blessed by this, the first Jewish
family in town—the daughter of the first Jewish settler (Louis Rose)—who
brought not only Jews into San Diego, but Jews into San Diego life. "
Praying
that God "grant infinite rest in Your sheltering presence among the holy
and pure to the soul of Henrietta Rose who has gone to her eternal home,"
Rabbi Meltzer went on to recite the traditional El Moleh Rachamim prayer
for the dead. Greene concluded the brief ceremony for the small group of
attendees, among whom also could be seen Robert Baum (in hat at front
left; Mrs. Pesta, front row, third from left) , and , standing, KNSD Reporter
Ken
Kramer could be seen taking it all in at left of tree. At right of tree are
Cemetery Manager Lugo, in dark suit, and KNSD's Rand Levin. Others viewed
the ceremony from other vantage points.