Thousands of words have been written about a woman named May Knight Rindge, who for 33 years battled in one court after another, including the United States Supreme Court, in her attempt to keep a highway from going through her ranch. She even offered land along the upper border of her 27-mile rancho instead of the much-sought-after beach right-of-way. But it wasn’t to be. On April 16, 1919, Los Angeles County was given the right-of-way through Rancho Malibu for construction of the Pacific Coast Highway. And by 1921, the rugged road was paved with concrete that was 20-feet wide and six inches thick. Finally, on June 16, 1929, motorists were allowed to drive through Malibu. This tidbit of Malibu history is the just a taste of the entertaining local history included in the new book “My Fifty Years in Malibu,” by Dorothy D. Stotsenberg, who with her late husband Ed has lived in Malibu since 1949. The book also contains a wide range of topics, including the Chumash natives, early on-location filming, disasters and controversies. The Stotsenberg name is firmly woven into the history of Malibu, where a love of sports, music, art and philanthropy shaped their lives and where, over the years, they lent their name and support to numerous programs at Pepperdine University in Malibu, including student scholarships, recital series and a classical guitar competition, to name a few. Stotsenberg, who received her master’s degree in journalism from UCLA, will sign books on Tuesday, August 23 from 7 to 8 p. m. at the Sculpture Garden of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art on Pepperdine’s Malibu campus, 24255 PCH. Contact: 506-4745.
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