This 1941 street is a pseudo-blend of the middle names of landowners Edward Logan Newell (1886-1960; see Ednuel Street) and Frances Areta Newell (1891-1984). Yes, technically it should be “Loganareta” – but that doesn’t quite have the same zing, does it? The daughter of a dentist, Frances Areta Ross was born, raised, and educated in Chicago, where she launched her acting career. She spent a good dozen years in vaudeville and the legitimate stage and had a handful of small parts in silent films, but I found no credits for her after 1924 so I don’t know when, where, or how she met Ed Newell. But she married him in 1927 and within a couple of years she was at the center of Monrovia’s amateur theatre scene, acting in and/or directing numerous plays – some even starring her husband. Her widowhood was a comfortable one: she maintained stylish homes in Palm Desert and Lake Arrowhead and spent her final years in Orange County.
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