Unveiling of Headstone for Henrietta Rose,
Mount Hope Cemetery, San Diego
By Donald H. Harrison
Shortly after 10 a.m., Wednesday, Nov. 16, at Mount Hope Cemetery, San Diego, Norman Greene, a co-founder of the Louis Rose
Society, began the ceremony to unveil a headstone for Henrietta Rose, whose grave had been unmarked since her burial in 1957.
Among the score of people who gathered for the commemoration were Sam Zeiden, with video camera in front row; and Arlette Smith,
in second row. Others whose faces are distinguishable in this profile shot are, in first row (right to left), San Diego School
Board Member John de Beck, San Diego Education Association President Terry Pesta; second row: Eric Poliak, Norman Manson,
and Rabbi Scott Meltzer.
The various speakers stressed areas of commonality with Henrietta Rose. For example, de Beck noted that he had gone to school
in the Roseville area, where Henrietta had begun her 45-year teaching career in 1895. He said Cabrillo Elementary School was
the successor school to Roseville Elementary, where Henrietta was the first teacher. Henrietta went on to teach at Middletown and
Sherman Elementary Schools. Pesta, at right, spent many years at Sherman as a teacher before becoming an executive of the
San Diego Education Association. After Sherman Elementary, Henrietta taught English and Spanish at Roosevelt Junior High
School. She is shown below in the second row, second from left, in Roosevelt's 1938 faculty photo:
Richard Levi, 88, a former student of Henrietta Rose's was to have spoken at the ceremony, but had to cancel because he was not feeling well.
Nevertheless, Henrietta's tenure at Roosevelt was remembered by Jean Brown Woodward, whose father, T. Malcolm Brown, had been the principal
while Henrietta was there. Mrs. Woodward, 80, left, recalled that Henrietta "in stature, was very small" and that "she had a decided limp, a very
difficult time walking—that was hard for her. She was a lovely person." Mrs. Woodward said she also remembered a "little house" where Henrietta
had resided at the corner of Madison and Arizona Streets. Another aspect of Henrietta's life was her Masonic activities. Her father Louis Rose had
been a founder of San Diego Lodge 35 F. & A.M. and Henrietta, in 1901, became worthy matron of the Southern Star chapter of the Order of the
Eastern Star. That chapter since has merged with the La Paloma Chapter, of which Liz Moffat , right, of Sun City is a past matron. Ms. Moffat's
group had joined with the Louis Rose Society in paying for the plaque commemorating Henrietta's life.
