Person Page 3,712

OBITUARY - Los Angeles Times; California; 4 June 1976; (Historical Newspapers, Ancestry.com):

BECK, Alfred N., beloved husband of Gladys M. Beck; father of Mary Ann Geyer, Geraldine Struver and Alexas Washburn; brother of Ruth McGilvray, Florence DeRome and Harrison Smith.

Slumber room visitation from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday. Services Saturday, 2 p.m., in the Little Church of the Flowers. Forest Lawn-Glendale.

Forest Lawn Mortuary.

Lorrena was first married to Clarence Zeke Shaw. Clarence was killed in an automobile accident. Lorrena was six months pregnant at the time.

Lorrena's mother, Laura Weltha (Bagley) Smith, married her second husband, Dr. Charles G. Wiggins, sometime between 1910 and 1920. Lorrena was identified as Lorrena Wiggins in the 1920 Census.

COMPOSITE WIGGINS FAMILY BIOGRAPHY from histories written by Donald Roger MacMillan and Bonnie (MacMillan) Crenshaw.

Laura Weltha (Bagley) Smith-Wiggins (called Myie by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren) and daughter, Lorrena Bagley (Smith) Shaw-MacMillan may have both been just over 5 feet tall but they could handle themselves, especially Laura.

In the summer of 1929, Laura's husband, Dr. Charles G. Wiggins, bought the Maple Creek Ranch from Tom Bear. Tom had lost heavily in a poker game. Dr. Wiggins got the ranch at a good price. Dr. Wiggins had cashed in his stock to purchase the ranch. (The timing was very fortunate as a few months later the stock market crash of 1929 took those stocks to zero.) The Maple Creek Ranch, located 30 miles east of Korbel, California, consisted of 24,000 acres of timber and grazing land with a large home built in 1904.

Laura ran the ranch while Dr. Wiggins continued working at his oral surgery practice in Pasadena, California. Just her and a shotgun to run the ranch. During World War II, Laura raised cattle and harvested sheep wool for the war effort.

Laura's daughter, Lorrena, and Lorrena's son, Richard Charles Shaw-MacMillan, would drive to the ranch each summer and stay with Laura. This vacation was something that Richard looked forward to each year.

Dr. Wiggins retired from his dental practice in 1961 and moved to the ranch. He decided to sell the fir and pine timber on the ranch and a large lumber mill was built in the early 1960s. At the same time they built a small lumber mill to produce hardwood lumber. Richard was interested in running one of the mills so he and wife, Barbara, moved to the ranch and stayed in the Wiggins home.

Richard had to fire an employee and the man returned and burned the mill down for revenge. Dr. Wiggins took the insurance money and decided not to rebuild. Probably the best thing that could have happened. This forced Richard back to San Francisco and into getting his law degree from Hastings.

Laura and Dr. Wiggins moved to Eureka where they had a home on O Street and later a larger home on Buhne Street. They sold the Maple Creek Ranch and bought a ranch in Table Bluff near Ferndale. Their daughter, Lorree and husband Lloyd Gillespie eventually took over the Table Bluff ranch.

Dr. Wiggins died in 1964 and Laura died in 1969.

BIOGRAPHY - Richard Charles McMillan by Barbara Ann Franks MacMillan; Posted 04 Sep 2011 by Patricia MacMillan01; (Ancestry.com)

Richard Charles Shaw was born on 15 November 1925, in Pasadena, California, three months after the death of his father, Clarence Zeke Shaw, a stock broker, from an automobile accident. His Mother, Lorrena Bagley Shaw, remarried on 5 September 1931, to Clifford James MacMillan, an Attorney from San Francisco. They had another son Donald Roger MacMillan and Richard dearly loved his younger brother. Clifford was a wonderful father and Richard loved him very much. Richard was not told he was adopted and did not remember the time before Lorrena married Clifford. Richard attended Junior High School at Aptos Junior high school and that is where I first met him, we were acquaintances and then we attended different High Schools and lost touch for awhile. When World War II started he was in high school and in danger of being drafted so he took extra courses and finished high school in 3 1/2 years so he could complete at least a semester of college (City College in San Francisco), which he did. It was at this time he found out about the adoption as he needed a copy of his birth certificate for the military. Clifford adopted him and a new birth certificate was issued. Richard and his parents chose to keep this a secret and I was the only one outside of Lorrena and Cliff who knew about the adoption. The rest of the family, his brother, and our children, and grandchildren did not find out until the time of his death.

He loved flying and tried to enlist in the Air Corps, but his eyes did not pass the physical and he was drafted into the Navy. Because of his hobby of photography, he was selected to go to Photography School and then was selected as Air Crew and went to Air Gunnery School (training in PV-2 Ventures). Richard ended up stationed on Okinawa where he photographed and mapped the coast of Japan while flying in B-29s prior to the coming invasion. During his free time, he explored the island, discovered many Japanese relics and rifles. He became a dealer in these rifles and made money which he sent home to buy a car after the war. Unfortunately exploring was hazardous. Two of his friends came upon some kind of memorial when they went to look at it there was an explosion and they were killed. It had been booby trapped. During the time he was on Okinawa a huge Typhoon blew in and destroyed practically everything to include the photo lab, mess hall, officers quarters, etc. When the storm started getting really bad he and his tent mates scrounged lumber and reinforced their tent. When the storm abated their's was one of only three tents left standing. Needless to say they had a lot of "friends" needing shelter in their tent. Shortly after the typhoon he was discharged and returned home.

He enrolled in San Francisco Junior College where we met again in an economics class and started talking. I was pinned to a fraternity brother of his and he was dating a Navy Wave. After a few encounters it was incendiary and neither of us looked at anyone else again. We went on to UC Berkeley and he worked nights at Eastman Kodak to earn money for my engagement ring. We graduated in 1949 and married 1 October 1949. At this time we moved to Eureka where Richard and his grandfather started a lumber mill on his grandfather's ranch. Eventually the mill was set on fire by a disgruntled former employee after which we returned to San Francisco where Richard went to law school and I worked for Social Services to help put him through school. During summer vacations Richard worked on VanNess Avenue selling cars which he loved. When he graduated, I was pregnant so he went to work for General Motors as a Chevrolet District Manager, deciding his true love was cars and not the law. Unfortunately, our son was stillborn. We were then blessed with two healthy children Bonnie Ann and two years later Jeffrey James. Richard bought his own dealership which he named Quality Cadillac Olds, in Visalia, Tulare County, California.

We led a busy and very happy life. We did a lot of boating and travelled this country and across Canada in our RV with our children and many times with his widowed Mother Lorrena (ReMe). He semi-retired in 1989, leasing out the dealership and eventually selling the land it was built on to Toys R Us and Olive Garden. He retained part of the lot where he built an office building which he leased out. With our daughter Bonnie working as his office manager he eventually bought an additional office building in Reno, Nevada. We decided to travel and managed to see a great deal of the world to include Japan, Europe, parts of Asia, Africa and Egypt, and others. We went to Katmandu and saw Mt. Everest - Richard flew around the mountain in a contraption I refused to get into.

Richard was a wonderful man, husband and father. He was a successful business man who did more than just provide for his family. There was never a dull moment with all his varied interests; boats, planes, photography, guns, stereo sound, the stock market and politics. He was a man who couldn't sit still. The praise I hear most from his friends is, “he was a fine gentleman." His family misses him.

- Barbara Ann Franks MacMillan.

BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT - San Francisco Chronicle; California; Saturday, May 14, 1932; page 13:

To wife of Clifford J. MacMillan 270 Moncada Way, May 13, a son.

OBITUARY - San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, CA; Sunday, November 3, 2013 (Genealogybank.com):

Donald R. MacMillan passed away October 21, 2013 in Greenbrae California. Born May 12, 1932 in San Francisco by his beloved parents Clifford and Lorrena MacMillan and

his brother Richard, all deceased. He attended Lowell High and The University.of California at Berkeley where he graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture Degree. Mr. MacMillan worked as an Associate Architect with S.M.P Architects for 37 years and was a member of The American Institute of Architects. He was the beloved husband of Emmy H. MacMillan and two sons of previous marriage Clifford D. MacMillan of Southern California and Weston I. MacMillan of Idaho. Don made a lasting impact on all those he came into contact with and will be greatly missed. Arrangements entrusted to Keaton's Redwood Chapel of Marin.