Ermanita, Faysmith, and Eriel avenues were all laid out on a 1942 development co-owned by Henry H. Wheeler and Violet E. Motz, longtime business partners who would eventually tie the knot in 1956. (See Paramount’s Motz Street.) While I’ve found no Fay Smiths in their orbit, and the source for Eriel remains a mystery, Ermanita has got to be an intentional misspelling of hermanita – “little sister” (affectionately) in Spanish – and refers to Violet’s actual little sister Erma (1899-1965). Born and raised in Waukesha, WI, Erma Ruth Motz took an early job with Jiffy-Jell, a precursor of Jell-O. In 1922, she moved to Chicago and started dating Earl Walter Paulson. The two were wed in Los Angeles in 1926 but divorced in 1937. (Quizzically, Earl remarried in 1936.) Both during and after her marriage, Erma lived with Violet in Los Angeles. She worked as an office manager, likely for her sister’s company.
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