Photo by Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times
Alice O'Neill Avery: 1/28/1917-7/22/2014
Last month marked 12 years since the passing of Alice O’Neill Avery, whose family owned and helped develop large tracts of land throughout South Orange County. Alicia Parkway was named in her honor.
Avery was born January 28, 1917, in Los Angeles and spent much of her childhood on her family’s 230,000-acre ranch, then known as Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores. Her paternal grandfather, Irish immigrant Richard O’Neill Sr., purchased the property in 1882, when it stretched from what is now Mission Viejo south to Oceanside.
Over the years, the vast ranch was transformed into several communities, including Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita. Much of the land also became Camp Pendleton.
Preservation was also important to the family. Thousands of acres were donated to benefit the public, including land that became O’Neill Regional Park in Trabuco Canyon.
Avery also had strong ties to Los Angeles County. Her great-great grandfather, Joe Loreto Sepulveda, served a term as mayor of Los Angeles in 1837. She was also a member of First Century Families, an organization for descendants of the Los Angeles region between 1781 and 1881.
Avery was 97 when she died on July 22, 2014.
