About June Morrall

Note: June Morrall died January 4, 2010. Her companion Burt Blumert died March 30, 2009. June’s blogs are now maintained by her friends in memory of June and to keep the history of the Coastside community alive.

I’ve lived on the San Mateo County Coastside, in El Granada, for more than 35 years. Some call me a “local historian”–I think of myself as a writer. I have written two books about the Coastside, “Half Moon Bay Memories: The Coastside’s Colorful Past” and “The Coburn Mystery”, a true story set in picturesque Pescadero, south of Half Moon Bay. I’ve written historical columns for the “Half Moon Bay Review” and “The San Mateo County Times”.

In 1980 I wrote/produced an hour documentary for KCSM-TV called “The Mystery of Half Moon Bay”. I hope to post some outtakes from that show.

The best times I’ve had in the world of writing were spent as a stringer working for Time Magazine at their San Francisco Bureau on Bush Street. I worked with the most terrific people including Dick Thompson, Bob Buderi, Olivia Stewart (personality everywhere she goes), Dianna Waggoner (Activist-environmentalist)–and Michael Moritz. Sadly the bureau chief, Bill Doerner, passed in the last year. More about all that later.

I have been proud to serve on the boards of historical museums, including the Spanishtown Hist. Society (Half Moon Bay) and the San Mateo County Historical Museum (Redwood City). I strongly urge you to visit both museums. The Spanishtown Historical Society is located in a colorful two cell jail on Johnston Street in Half Moon Bay. You’ll find the county museum in Redwood City, in the glorious old courthouse–fun to look at the collections in a building that has witnessed so many headline making court trials and divorce cases involving the local rich and famous.

Born and raised in San Francisco, I left home to attend San Jose State, graduating with a BA in Social Science/Psychology. Moved to El Granada in 1972 and have been here ever since.