Earlier this week I was in Orange County to meet my sister and brother-in-law for lunch and she handed me a newspaper feature on the Santa Ana home of Princess Usha of Holkar. It didn’t take much encouraging to make a very short detour to drive by the house at Heliotrope and Santa Clara Streets. It doesn’t look like the palace has changed much since Mom played with the Princess in the upstairs nursery, although the holiday lawn decorations are surely new.
I evidently misspelled my first name! It is Lorna not Lorn
I too was a playmate of Usha. What wonderful memories. I lived on Riverside Drive in Santa Ana and attended Hoover elementary. The older person in the picture I do not believe was the governess. We called her Mam'sell and she always wore her hair in a "snood". I would guess her age to be between 30 and 40 at the time in Santa Ana. I remember the fantastic birthday parties for Usha at the house on Heliotrope. Especially the molded ice cream animals. My memory of play time also included the play house in the back yard and the mandatory plate of cheese cubes. The car that I remember was a light blue convertible with a white rag top. It was driven by the body guard. The governess sat in the passenger seat and there was a firearm resting in the middle. Usha and I rode in the back seat. When she visited my house it would be parked in the driveway and the governess would come in and talk with my mother while we played in my room. Never outside in the back yard. I also had the pleasure of staying at the beach house in Emerald Bay with a side trip to the Laguna Festival of the Arts. I am sorry that we lost touch. She was a sweet girl and a wonderful friend. What an experience to have had. I hope that her life has been a happy one. Sorry that we lost touch but I would have no way of knowing how to reconnect.
Good idea! From the looks of the Toyota in the driveway, the new residents might be more approachable than the Prince with his Duesenberg !
Next time, take a copy of your post about your mother playing in the house and go knock on the door. Perhaps they’ll let you in for the sake of history!
-fM