A String of Pearls: Pearl Chase of Santa Barbara

Book Synopsis: Pearl Chase was the woman who shaped a city. For 80 years she made Santa Barbara her home—and her cause. With her keen foresight and forceful personality, she spearheaded the transformation of Santa Barbara from a dusty town devastated by an earthquake to a community of refined architecture, arts and culture, a center of environmental activism, and the birthplace of Earth Day.

A String of Pearls provides an intimate look at the life of a woman whose name is revered in the storied seaside community, and whose influence extended throughout California and across the nation. Pearl’s friends included presidents, politicians, national park directors and Native American activists, all part of her story, told for the first time by Rae in this meticulously researched narrative through personal letters, professional correspondence, private diaries, oral histories, and interviews.

An accomplished civic activist herself, Rae provides an insider’s look at how the determined “Miss Chase,” as she was known, guided her improvement projects through a maze of organizations and government bureaucracies. And Rae reveals the events in Pearl’s early life that profoundly shaped her, including a star-crossed romance set against the backdrop of World War I.

Each “Pearl” (chapter) reveals another layer of this complex woman confronting a man’s world: the triumphs and tragedies of her life and work, strung together amidst the tumultuous changes of twentieth-century America.