Not many Whittier streets have been immortalized in song, but here we have “Kentucky Avenue”, written and recorded by Tom Waits in 1978. Waits was born in December 1949, shortly after his parents Frank and Alma had relocated from La Verne to Whittier. After a few years on Pickering Ave., the Waitses moved to Kentucky Ave., probably in 1954. (The street itself was named in 1952.) They were definitely here when youngest daughter Cinthia was born in August 1955. Tom was five years old then, and he was ten when he and his sisters moved to San Diego with Alma after she divorced Frank. Consequently, his song “Kentucky Avenue” is filled with memories of his Whittier childhood, with lyrics name-checking real people who lived in the neighborhood in the 1950s. Despite all this, I have no idea why this street is called Kentucky. Along with Mikinda Court and Graceldo Lane – likely portmanteaus of people’s names – it was introduced on a tract owned by boring old Bank of America. If there were any contractors, agents, or mortgagees who named these streets for personal reasons, I couldn’t find them.
Find it on the map:
