Named by 1937 for Roy Franklin Wilcox (1887-1967) – or more specifically for the Wilcox Nurseries, which opened at the corner of present-day Wilcox and Beverly in 1921. Roy, his first wife Mary (née Keeline), and their little boys Franklin Keeline Wilcox and Richard Keeline Wilcox moved from Council Bluffs, Iowa to Montebello in 1919. Roy, who grew up in the florist business, served in aircraft production during WWI before influenza nearly killed him. Life was easier in CA, where the Wilcox Nurseries became the biggest seller of Kentia palms in the U.S. Although Mary died in 1929 and Roy married the former Margaret Collins in 1934, he would eventually rename his business the Keeline-Wilcox Nurseries. The family relocated the facility from Montebello to Santa Barbara in 1959, then later to Irvine and finally to Oxnard. They closed up shop in 2011.
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