2009 Cotati Accordian Festival. L-R: Recycle bin, Prue Draper, Pat Parker, some guy
clapping out of synch
Prue Draper, a pillar of the Cotati community, died at her
home on January 21st, 2017.
Born Prudence King in Cleveland, Ohio in 1930, Prue was the
oldest child of Ted and Helen King. She moved with them as a sub-teen to
Atlanta, Georgia, where her three siblings were born. With them and her mother she
traveled by train to San Diego in 1943 when Ted was deployed by the Navy to the
Pacific. She recounted how her mother had her dress in her Girl Scout uniform
to encourage respect from the other passengers, and how she and her sister and
brother would form a protective circle around their mother to protect her from
prying eyes as she nursed their infant brother. From San Diego the family moved
north as the war progressed, and in 1946 bought a chicken ranch in Petaluma.
Prue detested chicken ranching, but put up with it through
her high school years, gamely vaccinating chickens, “scratching eggs” to remove
clinging chicken poop, plucking and cleaning chickens for the pot, and
performing the myriad other chores required of a small and struggling egg
operation. She escaped gladly to the University of California, Berkeley on a
scholarship, but fell victim to pneumonia and had to drop out of school after
two years.
Back in Sonoma County, in 1949 she met Lloyd B. Draper, then
a semi-itinerant printer from Martinez. After a courtship during which Lloyd tried
to teach her to drive a car – through a neighbor’s front fence – they married
in 1951 and took over operation of The
Cotatian, then Cotati’s weekly newspaper. Building a house in Hessel and
later moving to School Street in Cotati, the couple operated The Cotatian until 1966. Both gathered
news, wrote stories, shot and developed photographs, sold advertisements and
marketed the paper. Both operated the huge, clanking linotypes that cast printing
type as lead slugs; these they locked into heavy page frames that Lloyd hefted
into the massive press to churn out the printed pages. Their children – Bob, Robin and then Jay – played in a back
room as the machinery roared.
Prue and Lloyd were active in the life of the
then-unincorporated town of Cotati, including efforts to site a new state
college campus there. When Rohnert Park was established in 1962 and launched an
aggressive growth initiative, they were leaders in the successful drive to
resist absorption by incorporating Cotati as a city in its own right. Lloyd
served as Cotati’s mayor, and Prue sat on the City’s Design Review Committee.
Meanwhile, The
Cotatian succumbed to the technology and economics of the digital age. With
its demise, Lloyd worked as a printer in San Francisco, Sebastopol, and Sonoma,
and Prue as a reporter and writer for the Argus-Courier,
Press Democrat , and Rohnert Park-Cotati Times. She also
worked at the Hewlett-Packard plant in Rohnert Park. Real estate they had acquired on Cotati’s
Plaza began to produce a stable income, and both Prue and Lloyd were able to
enjoy semi-retirement after about 1990, remaining active in civic affairs.
The tragic loss of their son Jay (Jeffrey Edward) in a 1975
motorcycle crash was devastating to Prue and Lloyd, but they responded with
typical grace and creativity, joining the Peace Corps and working for two years
in Samo’a – Prue as a teacher, Lloyd as a newspaper publisher. They made
lifelong friends in Samo’a, and retained lifelong interests in its people and
culture. Samo’a launched them on a series of travel adventures that took them
around the Pacific and to the Amazon, the Andes, Mexico, Central America, Europe
and Africa.
Back in Cotati, Prue and Lloyd plunged into a range of civic
affairs. Prue served on the Cotati School District Advisory Committee, the
Cotati Chamber of Commerce, and the Sonoma County Library Foundation. A
tangible reminder of their civic engagement is Cotati’s Lloyd and Prue Draper
Park. Another memorial was proposed by Cotati city leaders in the form of the
plaque and base under the Athena sculpture on the Plaza, not far from the old Cotatian shop. But as reported in the
November 24, 2010 Community Voice:
…in no
uncertain terms, Draper declined the honor and stated that her preference was
for the plaque to be dedicated to the Cotati Historical Society.
"We dedicated our lives to the Historical Society and the credit should go to the organization," she said. "It makes sense for it to be about the Historical Society, not individuals."
What if her wishes are ignored and the plaque is named in honor of Lloyd and Prue Draper?
"I'll throw eggs at it," she said. "I will!"[1]
"We dedicated our lives to the Historical Society and the credit should go to the organization," she said. "It makes sense for it to be about the Historical Society, not individuals."
What if her wishes are ignored and the plaque is named in honor of Lloyd and Prue Draper?
"I'll throw eggs at it," she said. "I will!"[1]
Prue served as the city’s
unofficial historian, spearheading establishment of the Cotati Historical Society
and Museum. She spent many hours every week welcoming visitors to the Museum,
composing its newsletter, receiving donated objects and organizing collections.
The City government drew on her expertise whenever a new street had to be
named; Prue could find one grounded in the area’s history, and provide its bona
fides. Deputy City Clerk Lauren Berges
calls her “an
amazing pillar of the community, a magnificent historian, and true gem of the
City.” And City
Councilmember John Dell’Osso says:
Prue
Draper has been a pillar in our community. Along with her husband Lloyd, they
have made Cotati what it is today.
Prue was also an energetic supporter of Sonoma State University’s
library and community outreach activities. Michelle Covington, Sonoma State’s
Director of Development, says:
Few
people are as involved in so many areas of University life
as Prue was at Sonoma State. From her involvement and support of the
University Library to her interest in uplifting the community through the
Donald & Maureen Green Music Center to a strong commitment to personal
growth via the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Prue’s presence and
partnership with the University were significant, greatly appreciated and will
be missed.
Besides her civic activities, Prue and Lloyd danced with the
Petaluma Cotillion and traveled by recreational vehicle with the Happy Hookups.
In 2004 they co-authored a book on Cotati in the popular “Images of America”
series, lavishly illustrated with historical photographs (https://www.amazon.com/Cotati-Images-America-Prudence-Draper/dp/0738528730).
Lloyd succumbed to pneumonia and heart failure in 2010;
after taking a trip alone that they had planned to take together – to
Argentina, Antarctica, and Easter Island -- Prue remained active in the life of
the city and the university, the Historical Society and her family. She was a
leader in efforts to preserve Cotati’s historical heritage, for example
coordinating the successful 2014 campaign to save and relocate the city’s rare
chimera redwood. In 2013 she was honored with the Woman of the Year award for
California’s 3rd Senate District. Much loved by her far-flung family, she
sponsored several large and boisterous reunions in rented beach houses at
Bodega Bay. Her niece, Kerrie McCann of Chula Vista, recalls:
Her
birthday/family reunions have been such a wonderful gift to our family, helping
us know and stay in touch with the Clan. And every holiday she would wrap up
and mail to us some collection of fun things for my kids to enjoy - Easter egg
kits at Easter, Gingerbread houses & Advent Calendars at Christmas,
Valentines candies & cards for Valentines, and on and on. Colt especially
loved doing the Gingerbread houses this year all in the midst of our crazy
move. He kept reminding his grandma and me that we had to make the Gingerbread
houses from Prue! Even though she was not in our daily lives, my children know
and love her. Such generosity of heart in helpful, fun ways! I loved her and
miss her!
Prue’s health began a rapid decline in January 2017. Some
suspect that as a lifelong Democrat she fled the onset of the Trump
administration, but that is nonsense; Prue was not one to run from an uphill
fight.
Prue’s long-term friend and colleague,
journalist Gaye LeBaron, says:
There is no one
who has stood taller and steadier in the pursuit of local journalism and
history than Prue Draper. As owners, editors, reporters and printers of the
weekly Cotatian in the 1950s, Prue and her late husband Lloyd Draper guided
that community from farm town to municipality with respect for the past and a
vision for the future. Among her many titles, including women's editor of the
Petaluma Argus Courier, executive secretary at Hewlett-Packard's Cotati plant,
and founding president of the Cotati Historical Society, Prue was also – in her
retirement years and my last years as a full-time columnist—the asistant in my
Press Democrat office, where her reporting skills, editorial ability and, most
of all, her sense of humor, served me and my readers well. She was my good
friend and I will miss her terribly.
Prue is survived by her son and daughter, Robert Lloyd and
Robin Elise Draper of Cotati, by her granddaughter Erin Roman of Santa Rosa,
her sister Mary Nell McCann, her brothers J. Stanton King and Thomas F. King,
and many nieces and nephews.
1 comment:
Tom... I was not aware of Prue's passing and I must say that you have done her justice with this fine account of this very special lady. Thank you for remembering her in this way.
JR 2.0
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