Clarence Eugene Kenyon (1887-1957) was a man of many vocations and many locations. Born in South Dakota and raised in Iowa, Kenyon started out as a pharmacist. He ran a drugstore in Redding in 1908, then relocated to Great Falls, MT to run another. He married his first wife Grace in 1912 but she divorced him in 1915. (It would prove to be Grace’s longest union: she wed three more times in quick succession; none lasted more than two years.) Months after the divorce, Kenyon tied the knot with Ella Rucker (1885-1968; she hailed from Merced), sold his share in his Great Falls store, and high-tailed it to St. Paul, MN. The Kenyons’ only child Eleanor (1916-1969) was born there – but soon the family was on the go again. The burgeoning oil industry beckoned, and Kenyon answered the call – first in Oklahoma City, then in De Leon, TX, where he was actually elected mayor in 1920. That too wouldn’t last: the family moved to Los Angeles the following year so Kenyon could stake his claim in the Signal Hill oil bonanza. His interests then turned – briefly – to real estate, and in 1923 he worked with Edward Haas to subdivide Harry Chase‘s Del Rey orchard as “Walnut Square”. Kenyon was sales manager and got this namesake street as thanks. It was extended into Westchester in 1945 by other guys.
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