Named for local legend Leo L. Lang (1869-1946). Born in Iowa to a German father and Swiss mother, Lang moved to North Dakota in the 1880s. There he started at least three small-town newspapers until relocating to L.A. in 1910 and settling in Tujunga. Lang had already suffered the quintessential tragedies of his era: his first wife Geneva died after childbirth (their daughter, also named Geneva, lived for 99 years) and a baby with second wife Jennie died from whooping cough. The Langs may have thus come to California for health reasons. Unsurprisingly, Leo got into real estate out here, but he was best known as a deputy fire warden for the County Forestry Department – in 1930, he was said to be the oldest forest firefighter in the county. Leolang Avenue was named a year before that. The Langs retired to Soquel in 1940.
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