June Morrall

I'm June Morrall, born in San Francisco in 1947, attended all the local schools, including Lincoln High, followed by San Jose State where I graduated with a B.A. in Social Science and a minor in psychology---both of which I use today to write stories about the history of the San Mateo County Coastside where I have lived in the same house, on the same piece of land for nearly 40 years (which, in Coastside time, means I am about to become a bona fide local!)

In high school, I wrote a column for the Lincoln Log. After I left San Jose State I wrote for various Bay Area publications and worked as a stringer for Time and their sister publications in San Francisco--at the Bush Street office in the Financial District which no longer exists.

Call me a trail blazer: I self-published a book when nobody was doing it, yet, in 1978 (I was influenced by the courageous, ultra-creative writers of 1920s Paris, and I should have born then!)---it's called "Half Moon Bay Memories: The Coastside's Colorful Past," and went through 3 printings. Now HMB Memories is a classic; the book's pages were designed by the great San Francisco artist, John Beyer (now gone.) In 1980 I produced and wrote the script for "The Mystery of Half Moon Bay," (the 60-minute KCSM documentary can be viewed online, and is another "classic," and in 1992 I self-published "The Coburn Mystery," a true story about the still-remote village of Pescadero. I can truly admit that I was obsessed with this story of murder and mayhem and had to write the story, as I knew it. I had the pleasure of meeting some of the folks who remembered. Last year (2008) Arcadia published "Princeton-by-the-Sea," a black and white photo-caption book about one of the Coastside's most culturally unique and fascinating areas---

I have 3 blogs called halfmoonbaymemories.com, pescadero memories.com and princetonbytheseamemories.com.

"Eye on the Bay," the popular San Francisco CBS show recently filmed here in Princeton, and I'm in it! The show will air in mid-October, 2009. Be sure and catch it. Liam, the host, is a very cool guy.