=Martha Ellen Scott, daughter of the founder of Pacific Palisades and an accomplished opera singer, passed away on July 17 at her home in Hancock Park. She was 98. Scott, one of six children, was born in Pasadena in 1911, where her father, Charles, was the minister at Lincoln Avenue Methodist Church. He later led the search for a site for a new religious community under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church. That community would be called Pacific Palisades. On January 14, 1922, Rev. Scott and other Founders and their families assembled under the oaks in Temescal Canyon and drew lots for their choice of home sites in the first two tracts of Pacific Palisades. Martha drew the slips and the winners were announced. That fall, Martha moved with her family from a tent in the canyon to a cottage located on the main entrance to the ‘developed’ part of the canyon (off today’s Sunset Boulevard). She recalled in ‘Pacific Palisades: From the Mountains to the Sea’ that her father hastily drew up a floor plan for their permanent home over breakfast one morning as her mother, Anna Elizabeth, looked on apprehensively. As a youngster, Martha roamed, often on horseback, along the cliffs and canyons that look out upon the Pacific Ocean. The first church services and grammar school classes were held in the cafeteria (which is still located in Temescal Gateway Park), which was heated in the winter by a pot-bellied stove. Most of the children came from the construction site and spoke little English, Martha recalled. The teacher was a portly lady, unimaginative in her methods, and ill prepared for the challenge. It was a temptation for Martha and some of the other students to play truant and find more interesting pursuits in the out-of-doors. Living in the Scott family was an adventure in itself, Martha recalled. For both Dr. and Mrs. Scott, religion provided a deep-seated faith, a special buoyancy of body and mind. Both were physical culture enthusiasts, exercising each morning and allowing their children a bedtime romp through the house’in the buff’to be sure they would sleep soundly. Martha recalled her teenage years as ‘flapper’ years for girls, and that boys had a craze for ‘strip-downs. Young fellows of high school age would put a car together from the junk yard”two seats to sit on, in a back of that a gas tank, and four wheels, and a little bit of motor and maybe a windshield, and maybe not.’ An accomplished opera singer, Martha performed as a soloist in Europe and the United States. She married Saul Shapiro, a longtime Monterey Park real estate developer, and the couple raised four children. She is survived by sons Joel and David, daughters Celia and Ruth, and grandchildren Ana, Lucas, Powel, Sharon and Liza, plus many dear family and friends. The family wishes that memorial donations be made to a Field Science Camp at Temescal Canyon’a program that provides enrichment for underserved urban youth. Checks should be made to MRCA with a notation (in memory of Martha Scott) and mailed to Mountains Recreations and Conservation Authority, L.A. River Center and Gardens, 570 West Avenue 26, suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90065.
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