Named for Valley pioneer William Justin Petit (1876-1948). Born in Pennsylvania, Petit grew up in Oxnard, as his French immigrant father Frank owned some 1,400 acres up and down the coast. Petit attended USC and married Loretta Norris (1879-1953) in 1898; thirteen years later, the couple and their two kids moved to Encino, where William set up a wildly successful sugar beet farm. Tragedy struck the Petit family in 1915 when fifteen-year-old daughter Marjorie died from pneumonia. Petit Avenue was named the following year. Surviving son Stanley Norris Petit (1904-2000) went on to be a pioneer in his own right: one of the first Valleyites to own an airplane, he was also the first to land one at Van Nuys Airport in 1928.
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