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 Mariko Crane was trained at the Santa Barbara Ballet Center school, starting when she was only 6 and a member of the Santa Barbara Festival Ballet for several years. She stayed with the Santa Barbara State Street Ballet for one year. Her last performance in Santa Barbara was the Nutcracker in 1998. She is currently studying in New York. |
A touch of fragrance... a touch of wisdom: "Lavender By Rona"
The fragrance is Lavender.... the Wisdom is Rona Barrett's
(All photos: ©SBLive 2001)
Ready to ship! " I manage two businesses, food and aromatherapy. Two different uses of lavender oils, two distribution chains, but both product lines well suited for the elderly.
A part of my profit goes to them."
www.LavenderByRona.comLong before we knew her as the queen of entertainment journalism, or the star of her own TV shows, Rona Barrett knew us. She knew us as children, when at an early age she was diagnosed with arested muscular dystrophy and she says: "I couldn't, run or play with the others, or even walkup stairs. I learned to observe the other children." Later, she knew us as so called adults, our foibles and glories reflected in the lives of the famous people she portrayed in her daily column.
Today, she knows us, the aging baby-boomers, as we face the unexpected, the abrupt onslaught of ailments and the lack of comfortable healthcare solutions.
All along Rona wanted to do something about helping the afflictions of others, thus perhaps helping herself to forget about her own. At first it was going to be children, but life decided otherwise and she became a journalist. Her career in print and on television spanned the 70's and the 80's. Then, she says, "the industry was changing and I needed a rest. It took 9 years for me to find myself and rethink how to best serve.
My father came to live with us at 86, in perfect health..... but then older people around me, my angels, suddenly began to pass way. I helped four personal friends through their last years and my own father.... What I had to go through was monumental. I broke on the inside, many times over. There was no one to take care of them. The only way was to make someone a ward of the State. It was the worst..... I got into the issues: healthcare, medication, housing. I switched from Children's charities to helping the elderly.
In the idyllic environment of the Santa Ynez Valley, Rona Barrett found her true vocation:
"There is no better relationship than the elderly and lavender. For the first time, there is very little resistance to what I am doing. I want a new way of housing for the elderly.... a village, with room to accommodate medical people. I want educational programs, I want to subsidize the care givers. The main obstacle is money, I put in a lot of my own into this business.
I need challenges in my life. Always have. It started in my youth. I used to cry about it then, but this new venture I smile about." Continued Page 2
Rona actively test, explores and selects what works best for her end product.
She keeps a close eye on her future crops...
The walls of Rona's office are lined with reminders of her Hollywood days. Here a drawing by Wes Herschenson, with some very familiar faces.
.... and lends a hand at harvest time.
Ten acres are dedicated to the plants on Rona's LuvLand Farm in the Santa Ynez Valley, which she and husband Bill Trowbridge purchased in 1985. Different lavender types do well on this type of soil. Like wine grapes, the timing of lavender harvest is crucial and intricate. More about Rona's Lavender
The Santa Barbara Independent
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Marianne Partridge is the Editor and co-founder of the Santa Barbara Independent, the county's weekly newspaper. Before moving to Santa Barbara 20 years ago, Partridge was the editor of the Village Voice, Executive Director of Look Magazine and Senior Editor of Rolling Stones where she also served as Bureau Chief in New York and Los Angeles. She began her career as a secretary at the original Saturday Evening Post and later worked as a reporter at Forbes Magazine and the New York Times.
Today she is one of four partners who own the Independent. "We're a somewhat liberal, political paper. I publish what is of interest to me and to my staff. My second in command is a woman: |
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"As large corporations are buying up all media, it becomes even more difficult for women to fit into the work place.
The corporate structure is still masculine in nature and that's the major block we have today. The work place needs to change. For instance, we need to accommodate children. If I had my way today, I would rent space where the staff could bring their children when appropriate. Choices are still hard for women today, a responsibility that Society isn't taking on enough. In most wen's lives, family and children are still and possibly forever the major preoccupation. I bought this paper because I had a child. I was 35 and didn't want to travel as a reporter any more..." |
(Photo©PressCom)Santa Barbara City College
