Posted on March 2, 2021
1960-1961 I have not yet been able to definitively locate where Diana/Paige was living, and what she was doing these years. She would have been 16 and 17 years old.
I do find some clues in a SFV phone directory where there is a Virginia Young LaRocca, (widowed in 1959) listed at 13204 Riverside Drive. A 6-plex (at that time) on the corner with Atoll Ave. Diana could have lived here with her grandmother, as she was only 16 years old in 1960. I have since confirmed this with a close relative of Diana’s; he remembers visiting Diana and Virginia at the Riverside Drive home in Sherman Oaks.
Josephine Young Harker, Virginia’s sister and Diana’s great aunt, is also listed with the Riverside Dr. address in a 1960 LA phone directory.
(It’s also the address on Ned LaRocca’s death cert. 1959. Unknown if he ever lived there or was at the sanitarium for two years.)
UPDATE 7/25/2022: I had a phone conversation with a close relative of Paige Young’s. He informed of Donna and Jack Holroyd’s son Wesley.
Donna marries Jack Holroyd in Las Vegas in 1958 and their son Wesley Scott Holroyd is born on August 20, 1960. This date is almost 9 months to the day that Donna’s father Ned LaRocca died.
Diana’s mother Donna and stepfather Jack Holroyd, are listed at 12835 1/2 Oxford Ave., very near Grant High School in 1960, 61 and 62. Diana could possibly have lived here as well. Virginia is listed here at least once or twice in directories and voter registrations in the early 1960s. They would have run out of space and privacy pretty quickly.
Panorama City
What looks here like a Panorama City Chamber of Commerce bash, takes place at the popular venue Sportsmen’s Lodge, .6 miles from Diana Cotterell’s childhood home on Moorpark St. Studio City.
on page 2
Photo of store where article says Paige is employed.
This was Robinson’s first store in the SFV and it opened June 27, 1961.
This is the earliest date I have found of Paige’s usage of the name Paige Young: 1962 when she was 18.
The latest date I have seen Paige associated with her birth name, Diana Cotterell, is her 9th grade photo listing in the Van Nuys Jr. High yearbook, 1957, age 15 or 16.
1963 and 1964 Both Virginia LaRocca and Jack Holroyd are in the phone directory with an address of 8533 Ventura Canyon, Van Nuys. This address is also listed as Panorama City.
Donna Holroyd is not listed these years, only her husband.
She may have started her studies at UCLA around this time, majoring in Early Childhood Education.
Paige’s cousin told me he remembers visiting Donna and Jack Holroyd with baby Wesley in the early 1960s.
He remembers swimming at Donna’s apartment house during many of those visits and that both Panorama City and Oxford St. near Grant High, sound right for the location. He recalls Paige was not present at these visits with the Holroyds. But he does remember her at the Riverside Drive location.
In 1969 interviews, Paige told reporters she graduated from Van Nuys High School. I have found no school photos of Paige at VNHS. (see 1969: Most Public Year)
I’ve seen dozens of newspaper photos accompanied with brief write-ups of model/starlets, beauty contest winners and runners up, from the 50s and 60s. Almost always it includes where the young women attended high school and frequently, they were still in high school. Note that in this write-up of Paige, no high school is mentioned. She has a “background in modelling and drama.”
It is probably the only article about Paige I’ve read that doesn’t mention her devotion to oil painting.
I’m thinking now that Paige dropped out of high school after the 9th or 10th grade.
Paige would be married in Las Vegas 1 1/2 years (Oct. 1, 1963) after this article appeared. The marriage lasted for 11 months (Aug 27, 1964).
In 1964, Paige filled out a divorce questionnaire ( below) stating that she had moved out of the marital home and was “living with family”.
Family would have been living at 8533 Ventura Canyon Ave. according to phone listings. Her answer to employment record says clerical-secretary.
See chapter on Marriage and Divorce to Mark F. Segal 1963-1964.
Paige says clerical-secretary here–Was this at Robinson’s in the Valley or was she a salesgirl there? Unclear.
Some of Paige’s quotes from Playboy are about disliking and avoiding the “9-5 doldrums” and”working for impersonal corporations.”
By 1963, Diana’s childhood home on Moorpark had been razed. Records show a city permit (below) requesting a 6-unit apartment to be built. Notice it says NONE (highlighted) for “existing buildings on lot.” I’m not sure when the house was actually torn down.
Did a developer make the LaRoccas an offer for the Moorpark house back in the late 50s when Ned was sick with lung cancer? Many older houses were now being razed for multi-unit housing to meet demand for higher density populations. If you can call a 6-plex multi-housing. I’ve been by this complex and it was added onto over the years.
Nearby Ventura Blvd. continued to thrive with many businesses of all kinds.
SFV continued to experience massive population growth and housing development throughout the 1960s.
Category: 1960s, LA Locations Tagged: #Paige Young, 8533 Ventura Canyon, consumer culture, Consumerculture, Divorce, Donna Holroyd, fashion and clothing, Fastest growing suburb in the SFV., J. W. Robinson's, Jack Holroyd, LA Department Store, Mid-century Los Angeles, Mid-Century SFV, Miss Panorama City, Panorama City, Panorama City History, Playboy, SFV, SFV History, Shopping destination, Van Nuys Junior High, Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet, Virginia LaRocca, Wesley Scott Holroyd