Margaret Koch (1918 , Sacramento, CA-2011, Klamath, Oregon) was a Santa Cruz Sentinel Staff writer and created paintings as a hobby (S.C. Sentinel Obituary 1/23/2011). She was friends with Hulda McLean a Santa Cruz artist whose prints appear in this collection, and the two accompanied each other on a trip to Guatemala and Mexico where the scenery provided much artistic inspiration. Margaret Koch’s and Hulda McLean’s works were shown at the Santa Cruz Sentinel building in 1973 (S.C. Sentinel 3/11/1973). Margaret Koch was named Woman of the Year by Santa Cruz and Socaptos Business and Professional Women’s Clubs (S.C. Sentinel 10/23/1970). She passed away in 2011 in Klamath, Oregon. She was survived by two sons, Edward and Thomas, a daughter Kathleen, and many grandchildren (S.C. Obituary 1/23/2011).
Louise Sheppa Lovett (abt. 1895-1974) [ancestry.com], an artist and teacher whose art was featured in state-wide exhibits held yearly throughout Santa Cruz in the 1940’s, started loving art when she was a child. Lovett’s early interest in art which was noticed by her family, who saw that Louise preferred drawing over other pursuits, encouraged Louise to study in Monterey and San Francisco. Louise further developed her artistic skills in each city by studying with artists Armin Hansen and Rudolph Schaffer. She attended UC Berkeley and graduated in 1916 (S.C. Sentinel 12/15/1981). In 1920, Louise wed Irving Lovett on Christmas Day. Irving Lovett was a teacher and administrator at schools in the towns of Quincy, Weatherville and Death Valley. This would begin Louise’s artistic fascination in the area, which she would become known for in paintings and prints of the area (S.C. Sentinel 12/12/1981). Louise would become a school teacher in Death Valley yet she continued her pursuit of art, often sending sketches and other artworks of the Death Valley area to Santa Cruz, which were than shown in exhibits at the Santa Cruz Art League (S.C. Sentinel 10/3/1947). In the 1930’s, Louise started some figure drawing classes held in the evening for Santa Cruz public schools featuring real models who posed (S.C. Sentinel 10/3/1937). Louise became a member of the League, and showed her art in many yearly exhibits in Santa Cruz (S.C. Sentinel 10/31/1947). In 1952, Louise had a painting in the Santa Cruz Art League exhibition entitled “East of Death Valley” which attracted attention for being the only desert scene in the exhibition. This exhibition was said to be the finest seen at the gallery (S.C. Sentinel 6/8/1952). A sketch made by Louise of Soquel Church in 1940 was featured in the Soquel Parish News and in the Santa Cruz Sentinel ( S.C. Sentinel 7/29/1943). Louise and her husband Irving Lovett would move to Santa Cruz permanently in 1953 (12/15/1981). Louise S. Lovett was also involved in the Santa Cruz community; she was program director for the young women’s group the Y-Teens of the Santa Cruz YWCA and the HY-Teens, which provided activities for young women such as camping, learning bridge, dance lessons, painting, ceramics and jewelry-making lessons, teas, and attendance to lectures sponsored by the American Association of University Women among other activities ( S.C. Sentinel 7/8/1956). Louise often led art and music lessons for the YWCA groups as well (S.C. Sentinel 6/18/1956). Louise S. Lovett also served as a member of the staff for the Santa Cruz County welfare department, who honored her for her work after she resigned to become principal at an elementary school in Quincy, California (S.C. Sentinel 8/15/1943). Louise S. Lovett passed away in 1974. Her husband Irving Lovett, a U.S. Army veteran of World War I and member of the Santa Cruz Lodge No.38 Free & Accepted Masons, passed away in 1981. They were survived by their daughters Mrs. Mary Louise Whitehead of South San Francisco and Mrs. Joanne E. Lathrop of Watsonville, nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren (S.C. Sentinel 12/15/1981). The Santa Cruz Museum MAH Archives Koch Collection includes six (6) silk screen prints by Louise S. Lovett of covered bridges in Felton and Paradise Park, donated by Margaret Koch to the Santa Cruz MAH in 1996 and completed by Louise Lovett in 1974.
Adist Boylan, whose poems and newspaper column clippings appear in a scrapbook of this collection, was a naturalist as well as a poet. She came to the Mount Hermon area in the 1920’s along with her husband John F.Boylan, living at Mount Hermon until World War II during which John was employed as carpenter at Fort Ord (S.C. Sentinel 9/23/1974). In the years 1937-30 Adist wrote a column entitled “Nature Study” for the San Lorenzo Valley Journal. This column included information on flora and fauna and where to find them, such as sea otters, the migration of monarch butterflies, and the local variety of hazel tree. Adist was very interested in natural history and local flora and fauna, amassing many local fossils and Native American artifacts which she later donated to Santa Cruz Museum in 1973(S.C. Sentinel 9/23/1974). Adist was particularly intrigued on the migration of monarch butterflies that occurs in Santa Cruz County and feature articles on them in her “Nature Study” column as well as writing a lengthy letter to the editor of the Santa Cruz Evening News in defensive of the beauty and attraction of the monarch migration, including a witty rebuke against one newspaper columnist calling monarchs “old tired migrants”. (S.C. Evening News 12/20/1939). Adist also published many poems under the pen name “ Hill Billy” in the Santa Cruz County Herald. Adist’s was later revealed as the author of “Hill Billy’s” poems in a dramatic reveal in the S.C. County Herald and later in a notation in the Santa Cruz Sentinel (S.C. Sentinel 2/20 1932). Adist was also an avid bird-watcher, she was a member of the Audubon Society, and often took trips to observe birds in the mountains. She was a frequent guest at meetings of the Women’s Luncheon Club where she gave talks on subjects such as “Getting Acquainted with the Birds”, and on her travels, and feeding platforms and observations of birds that she had made at her Mount Hermon home (S.C. Sentinel 3/18/1951). Adist was also a member of the San Lorenzo Valley Floral Club, and was host to the Santa Cruz Bird Club, sharing her knowledge with the club (S.C. Sentinel 3/18/1942 and 11/3/1966). A native of Leadville, Colo. ,Adist Boylan passed away in 1974 and was interred at IOOF Cemetery, with services held at White Chapel on Walnut Ave. She was survived by her nephew Lowell G. Shearer of Colorado (S.C. Sentinel 8/23/1974). Estella G. Shearer, owner of the Shearer Scrapbook that appears in the Koch Collection was one of Adist’s relatives.
