• Home
•  | 
• Login/Register
•  | 
• Help

My grandmother was Lorene Edna Ledford. She was born in Los Angeles, CA August 11,1906. Growing up there she spotted a very handsome young stud named Nicholas Pierce Kirwan in her High School. They were sweethearts for a heartbeat and then time marched on and they lost touch with one another. Nick went on to Stanford University and drove and orange juice truck and made deliveries in order to put himself through university. He was the first child to do so in the history of his family. Later his brother would graduate from U.C. Berkeley, and both would have established themselves as football players. I have memorabilia for both and the Stanford-Cal rivalry is well known in my family as well as the world! Grandpa was also a of the Fiji Fraternity and in later years as an alum helped to build their new frat house. He started out after graduating in San Francisco working for Dean and Co. as a budding investment banker. He wrangled an informational interview with A.P. Gianini before the crash of 1929 who advised him to develop his career as a stockbroker first and then a banker. I have a copy of the tape from that fateful day in 1929 when grandpa gave up on banking and went on to establish himself as an investment banker/stockbroker with Dean Witter & Co. in Los Angeles for almost 40 years. On his return to Los Angeles and before he made it big he was rediscovered by Lorene Ledford. She was a smart girl and not about to let him get away a second time. After dating for some time and him dragging his feet over a betrothal she announced she was headed with a girlfriend to Puerta Vallarta for a long vacation and not sure when she would return, or with who! He came to his senses and they became engaged. Lorene knew what she was doing and had managed multiple proposals of marriage before, some happengin at the same time, but she was a hold out for her Nick. They were married September 9, 1932 and stayed that way until they both died. They were the love of each other's lives and were even in the same nursing home in Santa Barbara Califonra for a while post-stroke. They built a wonderful life in Beverly Hills, CA starting when it was just a "little village of folks in the middle of LA" and much later moved to Santa Barbara in the 1980's, and after living in the same home they brought my mother into the world in July 23, 1936. Their story is one of a tenacious love and bond met many challenges and stayed true. Neither were pre-disposed to divorce and while not devoutly religious were of a common "faith" when it came to marriage and lent their strong work ethic and lust for life to the task of staying together no matter what. Their story inspired many people in their community and respective families, especially Lorene's who saw her own parent's divorce before she became a teen and in an era where such things were very uncommon.

Lorene Edna Ledford Kirwan was the daughter of Lorene Edgar Ledford and Lucy Emma Cecilia Kincaid. The Ledford's orginally haled from the Carolina's and came west as Quakers when using slaves on the family plantation became intolerable and stand was taken. The Kincaids were of Bakersfield and are still honored there for their contributions to the North in the Civil War. Elam Orson Kincaid later became appointed as one of the first Prison Guards of San Quentin Prison and took his Spanish bride there to raise a family. His bride of age 16 was Domitilla Aguilar of Descanso California, and her father, Gavino Aguilar is buried as one of California's original Spanish pioneers in the Ellis Family Cemetary where you can find his headstone and murder story on his headstone to this day.

Lorene's Californio past and Nick's survival of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake as the child of an Irish immigrant have made for a foundation of immense Califonia historical value and bond of Celtic and Spanish heritages, for which I am very proud. Their love was as true as their beginnings, and their legacy to their families felt around the world today.

You must be logged in to post a comment regarding this story.