Named (by 1923) after Nellie Sparks (1869-1943), who owned a piece of land where Sparks Street intersects with Olive and Verdugo. The daughter of English immigrants, Sparks was born Nellie Watson in the village of Fairplay, southwest Wisconsin. She married furniture dealer-turned real estate agent Frank T. Sparks in 1892; although he hailed from her hometown, they apparently courted in Iowa, where they wed and lived for most of the rest of Frank’s life. He died of tuberculosis in 1915 at the age of 47. It’s not clear what prompted Nellie’s move to Burbank, or whether she arrived shortly before or shortly after her two adult daughters Hazel and Aline came here in September 1919. The Sparks sisters were both teachers; Aline married one Lloyd Lancaster right around the time she came to SoCal, but Hazel remained single and lived with her mother. Not much else is known about Nellie Sparks, except that she owned an apartment house and a gas station.
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