This one’s a portmanteau: “Rod” comes from Rodney Dean Whaley (1929-1964), “loy” from his older brother Lloyd Dale Whaley (1928-2019). Nebraska natives both, they moved to Long Beach in 1935 with their parents Lloyd and LaVere Whaley. (Dad, a prolific homebuilder, laid out Rodloy Avenue and La Vere Drive in 1941. A fifth Whaley had been born by then: little sister Susan Jane. She has no namesake street that I know of.) Lloyd Dale graduated from USC in 1953 and got into real estate development like his father. He was married and divorced twice, had five kids, and spent his final years in Anaheim Hills. Rodney’s tale is a sadder one. In August 1964, the twice-married father of four drove up to Medford, OR to attend the funeral of his 12-year-old daughter Lonna Sue, who was shot in a freak accident at a family barbecue. On his way back to SoCal, Rodney was killed in a car crash.
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