What happened to Paige’s family, ex Husband, Desmond Guinness, Marvin M. Mitchelson. Updated 1/28/2025

From the LAT Aug. 29, 1976

Paige’s grandmother Virginia Young LaRocca died in August of 1976 in the Studio City Convalescent Hospital located at 11429 Ventura Blvd.  Location is close to the 1950s family home at 13055 Moorpark St.

Cause of Death: Stroke per a relative on a Mormon family website. A family audio recording to a relative on a Mormon MIssion somewhere in the world. Everyone said at least a few words into the tape recorder, except for Virginia, whom they referred to as “Doing really good Today.” Virginia may have had the debilitating stroke in the early 1970s and been unaware of of her GRANDDAUGHTER Paige’s suicide in 1974.

This address is the Chase Knolls Apts in Sherman Oaks. Ironically named Huston St., not a common name.

Virginia was cremated and her ashes scattered in the ocean near the Santa Monica shoreline, just like granddaughter Paige’s ashes two years previous.

 Virginia died of a stroke after one year of onset, according to her death certificate. It may have been more than a year.

Josephine’s daughter, former Warner Brothers starlet Mary Jane Harker Lanier died in 1988 in Jacksonville, Florida. Her husband Samuel Lefkovitz Lanier remarried and lived with his second wife for over 10 years until his death in 2007 at age 88, also in Florida.

The oldest child of Jane and Samuel Lanier, Samuel Harker Lanier, passed away in 2018; he was only in his 60s. A Florida lawyer, he had been disbarred due to a cocaine arrest only a few years previous.

Virginia’s sister and former Vaudeville performing and travelling partner, Josephine Young Harker, Paige Young’s great aunt, died in June of 1979 in the Jacksonville, Florida area. Public record.

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Donna Virginia LaRocca Holroyd had moved sometime in the late 60s, with mother Virginia? (had she had her stroke?) and husband Jack, to Simi Valley. Were they divorced already? Possibly as it is looking like Jack Holroyd married and divorced twice after Donna. Still need to confirm.

By 1970, Donna was the head supervisor for the Ocean View Children’s Center  (5201 Squires Dr.) in Port Hueneme  “for low income and welfare families…. so that the mothers (of the Valley Village neighborhood) could work or go to school.” Oxford News 1970.

Article below mentions that Donna received a degree from UCLA in Early Childhood Education.

Oxford Press Courier March 21, 1971. Her daughter Paige was probably living in Westwood or Trancas Beach by this time.

More on Donna Holroyd.

By the time of her daughter Paige’s suicide in April of 1974, Donna and Jack Holroyd were divorced. Donna was living with her mother Virginia back in Sherman Oaks. They stayed at the lovely and historic Chase Knolls Apartment Community on Huston St.

Donna’s Chase Knolls address is on Paige’s death certificate as her next of kin.

This Huston address is also on Virginia LaRocca‘s death cert. in 1976. Donna is listed as her mother’s next of kin. (See Above)

In 1980 this address appears on Donna’s own death certificate.

Donna Holroyd is divorced and living at the Chase Knolls Apartment Community in Sherman Oaks according to her death cert.

Donna dies of a “hypertensive arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease,” in her Chase Knolls apartment at age 59 years. Her and Jack’s son Wesley would have been about 20 years.

Donna outlives her mother by 4 years, and her daughter by 6.

Chase Knolls Apartments Sherman Oaks. Not Donna’s apartment which is located behind the locked gate.

Oldest daughter and Paige’s sister Constance Smashey is listed on Donna Holroyd’s death certificate as next of kin with a Simi Valley address.

Constance and Steve Smashey divorced and Connie would move to the Palm Desert area in the 1980s. She now lives in Banning, California.

She turned down my request to ask her a few questions about her sister Paige and their family.

Wesley Scott Holroyd died of alcoholism in 2014 at age 53. He was living in the San Fernando Valley where he spent most of his life.

Paige’s father Robert Morgan Cotterell and his wife Pat, moved to Oregon in the 1970s after he retired from Douglas Air. They lived there until their deaths around 2010.

Bob Cotterell’s obituary is no longer online. When it was, there was no mention of his daughters by Donna LaRocca: Diana/Paige and Constance.

It appears that Connie has reunited with her half siblings.

Richard Sample told me that Paige drove him to meet her sister one time only. He said he “didn’t get any impression” they were close.

Paige did not disclose her personal history or childhood, to anyone I’ve talked with who knew her.

Paige’s ex-husband Mark Frederick Segal married a woman named Denise in 1974. A few years later they had a son: Ivan Mark Segal

1985/86 Mark F. Segal stayed in the car business:

Segal sold his home on Crisp Canyon Ave. to Rex Ramsey and later bought it back from him. He sold it again and moved to Portland in the late 80s? He died there on October 16, 2012.

4133 Crisp Canyon Ave. was razed and replaced with a really horrible McMansion.

His son Ivan Segal lives in Portland and Scottsdale.

Desmond Guinness married Penelope Cuthbertson in 1984.

She is his cousin according to “International Set” gossip writer Suzy Knickerbocker back in 1973. They were not couple at that time.

View of Irish author and conservationist Desmond Guinness (1931 – 2020) as he sits in an armchair at his home, Leixlip Castle, Leixlip, County Kildare, Ireland, 1968. (Photo by Susan Wood/Getty Images)

Desmond continued fundraising for his Irish Georgian Society well into old age. He died on August 20, 2020. I have read Desmond had some degree of dementia.

Ex-wife Mariga and co-founder of the IGS died decades earlier.

There are numerous obituaries online for Hon. Desmond Guinness.

Desmond’s niece is fashion icon and socialite Daphne Guinness. His granddaughter is popular fashion model Jasmine Guinness.

How and where Desmond became acquainted with Paige Young is a mystery. Possibly was through John and CiCi Huston in Ireland.

Desmond on his own was well connected in Los Angeles and Southern California. He had a receptive audience in the area.

In the late 1970s……..

Paige’s divorce lawyer Marvin Mitchelson gained a reputation beyond Beverly Hills and LA. He became internationally famous when he represented Michelle Triola Marvin in her lawsuit against her live-in lover of 6 years, actor Lee Marvin.

Beverly Hills Lawyer Marvin M. Mitchelson

 Mitchelson introduced the term and concept of “palimony” into the courts.

Commonly known as Marvin vs. Marvin, the case received major publicity in the mass-media of the time. It’s something I personally remember as a young teenager. I call it “People magazine” famous.

I didn’t learn the back story in detail until I researched this project. I am condensing the details for this website.

Michelle Triola Marvin was a singer in Hollywood. She felt she was owed part of Lee Marvin’s $3.2 million fortune, as she had given up her own career, per his demand, to become his live-in lover, helpmate, career advisor, and even helped to raise his 4 children from first wife Betty.

Triola said Lee Marvin had promised her life-long financial support. Triola-Marvin was abruptly dumped when Lee Marvin suddenly married his high school sweetheart Pamela Feeney in 1970. Marvin kicked Triola-Marvin out of their Malibu home and cut her off financially.

 Because Michelle Triola Marvin was not legally married to Lee Marvin, she had no legal standing to demand any financial compensation.

Mitchelson saw an opportunity in California’s newly enacted “no-fault” divorce laws.

 Mitchelson filed a breach-of-contract suit against Lee Marvin in February of 1972 asking for 50% of his estate.

After being rejected by two lower courts, Mitchelson pushed the case to the California Supreme Court, where he won.

The Marvin vs. Marvin case finally reached trial in January of 1979 and it quickly became a mass-media event.

The judge in the case,  Judge Marshall, awarded about $100,000 to Triola-Marvin, for the salary she potentially lost giving up her career as a singer.

Lee Marvin’s attorneys appealed, and the decision was reversed, leaving Triola with nothing and Mitchelson with nothing.

 Mitchelson didn’t care though, because the fame the case brought him was worth millions of dollars in representing “wronged spouses,” mainly women.

The fact that in the end, Triola got nothing was not well publicized in the many media reports. It happened after the initial hoopala had died down and was never emphasized in the reporting.

Over the years, some of the women Marvin represented were celebrities like Bianca Jagger,  Zsa Zsa Gabor and Joan Collins ( a reverse of his norm as Collins was the one being sued by estranged husband Peter Holm.)

Mostly though, Mitchelson took cases of non-celebrity live-in girlfriends or mistresses of rich celebrities: Sara Dylan (Bob), Anna Kashfi (Marlon Brando) Nancy Lee Andrews (Ringo Starr), Veronica Buss and Puppi Buss (girlfriends of Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss) Soraya Khashoggi, Kayatana Harrison (Flip Wilson.)

Marvin represented a few men: Mark Christian, ex-lover of Rock Hudson, in his widely publicized case against Hudson’s estate for failing to disclose his AIDS status to Christian.

Mel Torme, Carl Sagan and Sonny Bono were other clients.

Mitchelson was disbarred in 1988 for grossly overcharging clients and went to prison in 1993 for tax evasion.

Marvin Mitchelson was released from prison in 1998 and died in 2004.

Lee Marvin died in 1987 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Michelle Triola went on to have a long live-in relationship with actor- comedian Dick Van Dyke. She died of lung cancer in 2009.

Information from: Ladies’ Man: The Life & Trials of Marvin Mitchelson, by John A. Jenkins. The only published biography of Marvin Mitchelson. It’ a fascinating look at an LA character of his time, nearly forgotten today.

1950s #1 Updated 11/4/25: 1950 Census. Gardena. Move to San Fernando Valley. Ned & Virginia LaRocca. The Marinello/Bartletts. Recording Industry LA. Leith Stevens.

San Fernando Valley abbreviated SFV.

The 1950 census

gives more information about the LaRocca/Cotterell family unit.

We seem the family listed at a residence in Gardena at 1830 W. 147th.

Enlarge the document and you see that Joseph’s occupation is Radio Orchestra Manager, Virginia, a Christian Science Practitioner.

Donna has an empty box for occupation, her daughters Constance S. is listed as 7 years and Diana L. as 5 years.

Constance would have been in the second grade and Diana, kindergarten, if she went.

A Gardena phone directory listing I found online. After 5 hours of looking. 1951, one year after the 1950 Census.

See the listing for Virginia LaRocca, CSP, at this same address but no Joseph is listed.

It’s unusual that Joseph and Virginia weren’t listed together. The married couple had been listed together every other year for decades, both in directories and voter registrations.

I first connected the family to 13055 Moorpark St. address by a city building permit dated Dec. of 1952.

The permit shows the LaRoccas requesting a house alteration to make more rooms and a separate entrance for a “rental unit.” Was the family living in Gardena and waiting for this construction work to be completed in Studio City? And did Ned LaRocca move there first while Virginia stayed in Gardena a bit longer?

Christian Young, a relative of Paige Young’s, told me in a phone conversation about a memory from his childhood.
“The house on Moorpark had a cabinet you could crawl through and get to their grandparents’ side (of the house).”

It seems reconstruction was made into a duplex, Ned and Virginia are on one side, Donna and the girls are on the other.

More specifically, off of the intersection of Coldwater Canyon and Ventura Blvd.

The duplex on Moorpark & Ethel, is located on the west side of Studio City, close to the eastern border with Sherman Oaks.

The Los Angeles River is nearby the house, as is Sportsman’s Lodge; a classic Hollywood and SFV landmark.

It’s recently been totally or partially demolished.

Ned & family were aware of this part of the SFV area for some time before their move.

Joseph’s only sister of many brothers was named Kathryn Marinello.

She and her husband Anthony, opened a food store at 13251 Moorpark in 1947, seen below.

“New Business Filings in the Valley” Van Nuys News

There is a 1947 City document I have been unable to download; indicating a “food store” at 13251 Moorpark St. The building was not owned by the Marinellos but a business announced, as seen here.

Bartletts are living at 13011 Moorpark and registered different political affiliations.
1950 census. Mildred Marinell originally Marinello, Donna’s first cousin, has married a man named Clifton Bartlett. Mildred’s parents, Anthony and Kathryn (retail grocery) live at the same address: 13011 Moorpark Street. It’s on the same street as their grocery business and only a few hundred feet from 13055 Moorpark where the Ned LaRocca/Cotterell family moved in approx. 1952. As shown above.
Mildred and Clifton’s first child James is recorded as 1 year old.
Their daughter Donna Lee was born only a few years later. Looks like she was named for Donna LaRocca Cotterell, and Diana Lee Cotterell.
1954 Los Angeles voter’s registration. Ned, Virginia and Donna living on Moorpark St. in Studio City/Sherman Oaks. Virginia is by now listing herself as a Republican.

Meanwhile……Diana’s father Robert Morgan Cotterell also moved to the SFV around this time, but further west of his daughters and ex-wife.

His new wife (1949) Patricia/Pat Frick and their two children born in 1950 and 1951, started out in the Canoga Park/Winnetka area.

Robert’s daughters by Donna V., were living in Gardena when “Bob and Pat” were parenting 2 toddlers on Lurline Ave.

I can’t imagine they saw each other that often but who knows?

It’s the first of many moves around LA for the Cotterell family due to Bob Cotterell Sr.’s career at Douglas Aircraft.

We do not know exactly why the LaRocca family moved to the SFV.

However, we know they were part of a massive migration to the area after World War 2, from both inside and outside California.

Hughes Market on Ventura Blvd. and Coldwater Canyon Blvd. From facebook “SFV in the 50, 60s, 70s.” Close to where Paige/Diana lived with her family for several years in the mid-1950s. Undoubtedly this was where the family did at least some shopping.

“The end of WW2 transformed the Valley and vastly accelerated its growth

with: vast tracts of suburban housing, shopping centers and industrial parks where chicken ranches, orchards and cattle ranches and wheat fields once existed. The 1940s and 50s, when I was growing up, the Valley was full of movie cowboys, beautiful ranches and fine horses.”  

Jerry England at cowboyup.com

“In the five years after the war, the population (of SFV) more than doubled to 402,538 residents-the pastoral San Fernando Valley was suddenly the ninth-busiest urban area in the nation. Valley society was a mix of young suburbanites, older families who had come west to try their luck as engineers, animators, or pioneers in the new field of television, and ranchers trying to hang on in the face of the new hordes.”

The San Fernando Valley: America’s Suburb by Kevin Roderick

 I discovered that Ned LaRocca spent most of the 1950s working as an “orchestra manager.”

He worked for composer/conductor Leith Stevens.

I saw this information through Ned’s death certificate, seen below.

Ned La Rocca death certificate. Indicates working for Leith Stevens; conductor composer for TV and Movies.

I can confirm two Leith Stevens projects that have a credit as “contractor” for Ned LaRocca: A Doris Day album recorded in 1951 at 1032 Sycamore Street.

It was a studio known at that time as “The Annex.”

The website careerexplorer.com defines an orchestra contractor is:  “He or she has the job of finding the appropriate musicians for Broadway shows, television episodes and commercials.”

Ned had experience adapting to a new mass medium.

In his first industry performing on the Vaudeville stage performing the harp. (See related chapters)

Vaudeville died in the early 1930s during the Great Depression and Radio programming became a mass entertainment form.

One significant factor that changed the popularity of radio programming was the rise of TV in the 1950s.

Drama, comedy and musical variety and interview shows moved to TV.

In the 1950s Los Angeles had a burgeoning music recording industry scene.

Ned worked in each of these mediums. Performing on radio broadcasts and orchestra managing for films.

In 1950, just under 20 percent of American homes contained a TV set. Ten years later, nearly 90 percent of homes contained a TV—and some even had color TVs. The number of TV stations, channels, and programs all grew to meet this surging demand.

encyclopedia.com

Ned LaRocca has a credit on Leith Steven’s 1953 score to the Marlon Brando movie “The Wild One.”

This record was a hit, released by Decca records, it remains Stevens’ most widely known work.  J. Ned LaRocca is credited as “Contractor” on the project: Per Discogs.com.

As I understand, the Wild One was the first soundtrack entirely made up of Jazz music.

Los Angeles Times Dec. 22, 1953.

I recently watched The Wild One and noticed there are long stretches where there is an notable absence of music.

The Wild One is famous for featuring a young Marlon Brando. The cinematography is striking in its black and white palette credited to Hal Mohr. He was an Oscar winner for Midnight Summer’s Dream in 1935 and Phantom of the Opera in 1943.

Besides composing and conducting “The Wild One” soundtrack, Leith Stevens composed scores for radio shows, movies and  T.V. from the 1930s until his death in 1970.

This includes Film Noir classic Private Hell 36, co-written by and starred Ida Lupino.

Another Stevens credit was for The Bigamist, directed by and starring Lupino. So there was a relationship there with the pioneer female director, Lupino. Or maybe he was just assigned to the project.

A minuscule list of Leith Stevens credits includes both credited and uncredited work.

Just a very few: It’s a Wonderful Life, 1946, Ma & Pa Kettle Back on the Farm, 1951, 1954, Earth Vs. Flying Saucers in 1956, The Ann Sothern Show, 1960, Twilight Zone, early 1960s.

He composed 100s of stock music pieces for Hollywood media.

Virginia Young LaRocca in the 1950s.

Diana’s grandmother. She started out life as a Mormon in Utah, but somewhere along the way became a Christian Scientist.

She is listed as “Chr. Sci.pr.” (Christian Science Practitioner) in Los Angeles telephone directories in the 1940 and 1950s. Virginia was listed with her own telephone line.

(Read more about Virginia and her sister Josephine’s early years as a Vaudeville performer in the family history chapters.)

Christian Science practitioner is an individual who prays for others according to the teachings of Christian Science. Treatment is non-medical, rather it is based on the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1875) by Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910), who said she discovered Christian Science in 1866 and founded the Christian Science church in 1879. According to the church, Christian Science practitioners address physical conditions, as well as relationship or financial difficulties and any other problem or crisis.

wikipedia

At some point, the Christian Science Church won the right to accept insurance for their practitioners. However, I have been unable to find exactly what year.

So, I can’t tell how much income Virginia might have earned from her vocation as a CSP.

In 1955, an LA telephone directory lists a Ned J. LaRocca at 4414 N. Ethel and a Virginia Young LaRocca with the same address.

Donna Cotterell is listed with the 13055 Moorpark address. 13055 Moorpark is on a corner with Ethel St.

4114 Ethel St. doesn’t seem to be an “real” address;  I don’t find a record of it anywhere besides the phone directory.

1957 Virginia Young LaRocca is listed in the phone directory at 4414 N. Ethel State 4-7052 North Hollywood. Cr. Sci. Pr.

This could be a result of the house modification for Donna, Diana and Constance Cotterell, it was made into a duplex.

Evidence of 2 seperate address for what was really one house.
1950s directory. Notice Donna’s middle name Virginia is used. She still uses the name of her ex-husband (common practice then as now.) who is listed right above her name, at a Canoga Park address where he lived with Mrs. Patricia Cotterell and their two children born in 1950 and 1951.

I’m sure Donna received child support from her ex-husband Robert Cotterell. And likely alimony until Donna remarried in 1958 to Jack Holroyd in a Las Vegas wedding.

It is probable that grandfather Ned LaRocca was the primary breadwinner of this household.

This would have been normal for the times.

Ned LaRocca on a boys trip fishing at Bear Lake. Big Bear Grizzly newspaper, July 15, 1949. Abe Lincoln is well known in the world of Hollywood musicians.

1940s (1930s) Los Angeles: Family. Marriage. Hollywood Wedding Chapel. Los Feliz Houses. Mildred Marinell. WW2. P.O.W. Divorce. Updated 11/24/2025.

You were introduced to Diana Cotterell/Paige Young’s parents in an earlier chapter, let’s learn more about them.

Robert M. Cotterell was 23 and Donna V. LaRocca 19, when they were married in 1940.

Donna is listed in the 1940 census as living with her parents at 3834 Evans St., and that she was a “New Worker” in “Dramatics.”

Certificate of marriage for Robert M. Cotterell and Donna Virginia LaRocca.
Mildred K. Marinell signature listed on next to last line.
Mildred is the daughter of Joseph LaRocca’s only sister Kathryn LaRocca Marinello, and Donna’s first cousin. Mildred dropped the “o” from her birth name. The family name is recorded as both Marinello and Marinelli; Mildred became Marinell, so it’s been confusing to research.

Below is the Hollywood Wedding Chapel where Robert and Donna were married per the marriage certificate.

Located a stone’s throw to Chateau Marmont which is still a thriving business today. Mainly due to celebrity culture.

The famed Garden of Allah apartment building was across the street.

Hollywood Citizen Nov. 15, 1940 Looks like Mildred Marinell gave her name as “Miss Penny Pepper.” Notice the bride’s home is 3834 Evans.

Much more on Donna’s cousin Mildred coming up. (I suspect she occasionally used the name Penny Pepper in show business.)

This Hollywood Wedding Chapel building was purchased by famous director/writer Preston Sturges in 1940. He transformed it into “Players” restaurant which became a watering hole for the movie business.

Players has its’ own interesting Hollywood history.

Donna and Robert must have been one of the last couples to marry at the chapel before Sturges took over.

Now this location is a Pink Taco restaurant. 

**UPDATE** Pink Taco abruptly closed in 2024.

Diana’s father Robert Morgan Cotterell was born around 1917 in Algon, Iowa. He moved to Los Angeles around 1938 to follow his interest in aviation. (According to his son in a facebook message to me.)

From Constance Susan Cotterell’s birth cert. in 1942. Father Robert a Leadman at Douglas Aircraft.

From the 1944 birth cert. of 2nd daughter Diana Cotterell. Father Robert was an Aviator in the US Army.

Donna Virginia LaRocca’s parents Ned and Virginia LaRocca were Vaudeville musicians and traveled the Pantages, Orpheum and other Vaudeville circuits for about the first 10 years of Donna’s life. For more, see related chapters.

LA Voter’s Registration records 1934. Joseph is the only listed Republican amongst his wife, his brother Frank and Frank’s wife Rose (they lived a few streets over) and most of his neighbors! Daughter Donna would have been 13 years old. Virginia is listed as a Republican beginning in the 1940s.
This location, Shoredale and Gatewood Streets are in the Elysian Valley or maybe “Frog Town” part of Los Angeles. Very close to Elysian Park which was the very first City Park in Los Angeles

They moved to Evans St. near Marshall High School around 1938.

Donna Virginia was born in 1921, in Peoria, Illinois, the hometown of her father: Joseph Ned LaRocca. 

Donna V. moved with her parents to Los Angeles around 1934.

By City Document dated 1943. Owner of 3834 Evans St., J.N. LaRocca, Donna LaRocca’s father, is having an outside closet built, “in which a hot air heat will be installed.” Diana Lee Cotterell was be born the next year in March.

Robert M. Cotterell during World War 2:

 

Diana Cotterell/Paige Young’s father Robert Morgan Cotterell during WW2

Wilmington Daily Press Journal July 26, 1944

LAT Aug. 19, 1944 listed at Arbolada.

Robert Cotterell’s daughter Constance is 2 years old, and Diana only 5 months, on the date the POW announcement was published.  

Diana’s father Robert M. Cotterell is listed as a POW with a home address of 3834 Evans St. His daughter Diana was 4 months old, her older sister Constance around 2 years.

Los Angeles Evening Citizen News July 29, 1944 >>>>>>>>

For his part in the war effort, Joseph Ned LaRocca signed up for the “Old Man’s Draft Card.” In 1942, Congress enacted a “law” to show solidarity for the war effort. It provided the Government an idea of the skills the skills “older” men in the US populations. For utilization in the war effort.

The document shows Ned was living at 3834 Evans in 1942.

He was driving to and working as a harpist in the famous NBC and CBS buildings on Sunset & Vine. (More on this in other family chapters.)

From the 1944 birth certificate of Diana Lee Cotterell, later Paige Young. Home residence listed on Evans Ave., located a stone’s throw away from Marshall High School.

1945 Diana’s father Robert Cotterell is liberated from the German Camp. where he spent approx. one year. I have no idea what he experienced but it probably wasn’t great. Robert’s daughter Diana was 1 year old in 1945 and first-born Constance, 3 years.

Public military record found online.

1947

Donna LaRocca Cotterell files for divorce against Robert Morgan Cotterell.

Los Angeles Times September 16, 1947 Constance and Diana’s parents. Diana 3 1/2 when published.

1947 Only 2 months later, the divorce is granted. This seems unusually quick.

Los Angeles Times Novemeber 6, 1947

Historic Context:

Robert and Donna Cotterell were one couple out of thousands who made up a nation-wide spike in divorce rates after WW2.

Statistics show that in 1946 one in four US marriages ended in divorce.

A 1946 article published in the New York Times said:

“More than half of America’s 1,500,000 war-wed G.I.s have returned. Already one out of every four of these 800,000 men is entangled in divorce proceedings. Experts are predicting that by 1950, 1,000,000 of these wartime marriages-or two out of three-will end in divorce.”

 Robert Cotterell remarried in approximately 1949 to Patricia Frick and the couple had two children, in 1950 and 1951.

 He got a job after the war working for Douglas Aircraft. The job took his family all over the San Fernando Valley. One stop was Laguna Beach.

I would imagine Robert paid alimony to Donna, normal at the time. He also would have paid child support for his daughters Constance and Diana. I have not been able to learn what kind of relationship the sisters had with their father.

 Virginia LaRocca, Donna’s mother, Diana and Constance’s grandmother, was named owner of a double house at 3710 & 3712 Arbolada.

This house is only one mile from the home on Evans St.

From city records online. Sept. 5, 1947.

Close up

Donna has a voter registration record with this address way back in 1944 below and in Robert Cotterell’s POW announcements in the newspapers.

Joseph LaRocca is listed in the LA telephone directory with this Arbolada address in 1948.

Arbolada Rd. is a dead end street.

The homes are located high on a hill with an incredible panoramic view of the area. It’s minutes away from the Evans St. home, so still near Griffith Park.

The homes have a steep step climb.

Document from ancestry lost. Apologies. It was a Voter’s registration showing the following information.

Joseph and Virgina La Rocca listed above at the Arbolada address. Antonio and Corina La Bianca are at 3301 Waverly Dr.

Virginia’s listing leaves off “Christian Science” and just says her employment is “practitioner.” She now has an R by her name!

Antonio and Corina La Bianca purchased the house on Waverly Dr., sometime in the 30s or 40s but will confirm.

Unfortunately, the world knows the story of their son Leno.

The LaRocca Arbolada Road house is close to the LaBianca residence on Waverly Drive. Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were victims of the Manson family at this location. However, between the 2 houses is a large plot of undeveloped (!) land, so one has to travel a circuitous route between the two homes, as a friend did for me one time that I visited. There is no direct path between the two houses.

 The 2 Italian families (Joseph’s wife Virginia was not Italian but Mormon with English ancestry) lived a 5 minute car drive from each other at one point, even if they never met.

Mildred Marinell

  Diana/Paige’s mother Donna was very close to her first cousin “Mildred Marinell.”

Mildred lived close to Donna in Peoria, Ill., with her in Los Feliz section of LA at 3834 Evans St. And a few doors down from each other in Sherman Oaks, San Fernando Valley, in the 1950s. This is seen in census records mainly.

Mildred Marinell sings with a band in an active San Diego entertainment scene during the Great Depression. San Diego newspaper Sun. June 29, 1935.

Seen below: Port Angeles, Washington Sept. 21, 1937. Mildred dropped the i/o (I’ve seen it both ways) from her name

Mildred Marinell and her mother Kathryn living at 3834 Evans. 1936

Marriage notice: LAT May 25, 1938 Again she is listed as Mildred “Marinell,” and again listed at the Evans St. home. Mildred did not marry Lewis E. Filman. I viewed a few documents on ancestry.com indicating Filman was from Peoria, Illinois, hometown of the LaRoccas and Marinellos.
Mildred ended up marrying Clayton Bartlett and having children with him and living in the San Fernando Valley.

The city of Los Angeles experienced a housing shortage during the post-war years. More so than the usual housing shortage that seems to have almost always existed in LA.

This fact caused me to wonder how the LaRoccas were able afford the 2 houses. They bought one right after the other, or overlapping, in the 1940s. Evans St and Arbolada Rd. houses.

 Documents and articles show both addresses were used beginning in 1944 up until about 1948.

Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet Dec. 4, 1942 Still at the Evans address.

Mildred would name her daughter “Donna Lee,” (Lee was Diana/Paige’s middle name) Bartlett,” born in the early 1950s. I’ve tried and can’t reach her.

I didn’t find an exact answer but the next several chapters may shed some light on this “upwardly mobile” family.

Virginia LaRocca had been a full time Christian Science Practitioner sometime in the 1940s, as best as I can tell now.

She had her own phone listing in LA phone books for many years for the purpose for her work as a Practitioner or CSP.

“Gin” became a Christian Science Reader at some point.   Her income from this is unknown. It is a high position in the Church of Christ Science.

Virginia’s sister Josephine Harker was listed in a directory at the Evans house around 1940. Harker was her sister’s sometimes singing/dancing partner back in the days of Vaudeville (see related chapters).

It’s easy to imagine that the Evans house was entirely too small to fit all these family members comfortably.

And of course there was daughter Donna and granddaughters Constance and Diana Cotterell born in 1942 and 44.

Father Robert was serving overseas most of this time, his name was connected with both addresses as articles show.

I’m not sure where exactly Robert moved soon after he was liberated and returned from a German POW camp.

His son Robert Cotterell JR. wrote me that his father told him he received a “Dear John” letter from wife Donna, when he was overseas.

I imagine POWs weren’t allowed any mail.

All these names, excluding Diana and Constance, were linked to the Evans or Arbolada address from 1938 through around 1947. These dates are per records I have shown or seen.

Donna and Robert were officially divorced in 1947 per notice in the LAT.

3710/12 Arbolada high on a hill with the view seen below. It was a double house possibly intended to more comfortably accommodate immediate and extended family.

View of the surrounding area is spectacular as is the building itself. It’s one of those house you see in Los Angeles that look precariously balanced on a steep hill.

Perhaps Virginia and Ned sold this spectacular double house to finance their home in the San Fernando Valley?