A Treasured Connection to Bennett Valley

By Lisa Quiroga

My personal connection to Bennett Valley extends back through four generations.

My great-great-grandparents, Edwin and Amy James, moved their family from Pasco, Washington to Santa Rosa in the early 1920’s. Their oldest son, Alden, began a home-building business shortly thereafter. Many of the homes he built still stand and can be found in the historical neighborhoods around the Santa Rosa Junior College, Burbank, and MacDonald Avenue neighborhoods. They are beautiful examples of early 1920’s Spanish revival architecture.

In 1926, Alden married Esther Ronne. The Ronne family had moved from New York state to Santa Rosa when Esther was just a baby in the early 1910’s. Her father, John Ronne originally of Denmark, was both a cabinet maker and the head gardener at Julliard Park. Esther’s mother, Carrie Ronne, originally from New York, was a homemaker.

My grandfather Merlyn James, Alden’s oldest son, also built his life in Santa Rosa. He and his wife, my lovely grandmother Ruth Borel, built their home on Ronne Drive, overlooking Santa Rosa and Bennett Peak. I can remember playing in their backyard with their dogs as a child, appreciating the stunning view of the Valley and the Peak.

My grandparents raised two sons, one of whom was my father, Gary James. My father always felt that there was no better place in the entire world than Bennett Valley, and he wanted to raise his own family there as well. Shortly after graduating from Montgomery High School, his selective service number all but assured he would be drafted, and so he enlisted in the Army. He was trained as a helicopter radio technician (Avionics) and afterwards shipped to Vietnam in 1971. He spent a year in Vietnam, and after his tour was complete, he was assigned to Fort Carson, Colorado (near Colorado Springs) and then honorably discharged.

Following his discharge from the Army, my father purchased almost 4 acres of land on Bennett Valley Road, at the intersection with Holly Oak Way. He became a firefighter, working for the Santa Rosa Fire Department for nearly 30 years. He met my mother, Theresa Sanders, married, and in 1979 built his own home himself, a modest 1,200 square foot bungalow. I was born in the early 1980’s with my brother following within a few years, and we grew up in the beauty and splendor of rural Bennett Valley. We didn’t know how lucky we were!

As I grew older, I understood that my father had been involved in the Vietnam War; yet he would never speak of it. Even after several attempts at conversations regarding his Service, he would quickly disregard his experience and change the subject. Eventually I stopped asking him, as he was clearly uncomfortable talking about it with me. I graduated from Montgomery High School, and went on to college, a career, and marriage. Dad and I grew closer as I got older, and we had a special father-daughter bond, especially as I had my own children.

Fast-forward to 2018. On a hot, sunny day in late June, my father left home and never returned. He was killed in an auto accident on Bennett Valley Road, only a few miles from his home. What followed was nothing short of chaos; dealing with the unexpected and untimely death of a parent is something I would never wish on anyone. During the months that followed, cleaning out his home, and sorting through belongings to keep, donate, or sell, I stumbled upon several old shoeboxes full of handwritten letters in their original envelopes. In both my grief and sentimentality, I decided to keep them and examine them at a later date.

During the 2020 pandemic, I decided to finally look over the letters I had found at my parents’ home. Much to my surprise and disbelief, the letters were all written by my father and addressed to my grandparents during his time enlisted in the Army. Amazingly, nearly one hundred of these letters were written during his time spent in Vietnam! I could not believe my luck. I felt that I could finally connect to my father in a way that I was never able to while he was alive.

After reading all his letters, I transcribed them into chronological order. I realized that they told a story not only about my father’s experience, but also his family and hometown. My father’s letters home from Vietnam are sometimes tragic, terrifying, and grim. Others convey the sheer boredom of war, and the listlessness and anxiety of waiting for the next potential ambush. He describes the daily life of a young American soldier in detail, but also expounds on all the elements of home he missed the most: the people, the places, and the beauty of Bennett Valley. I decided to publish his letters in an anthology, as a historical yet personal perspective on a very difficult time in American history.

My mother and father are both buried at the Bennett Valley Cemetery, a small historical graveyard tucked away on the southwest side of Bennett Valley Road. Their wishes were to remain in Bennett Valley, even after passing.  

Thank you for taking the time to read about my family. Should you wish to pick up a copy, my book is available for purchase on Amazon. The link is: http://a.co/d/aSwnY5T . I appreciate all support of my book and would love to receive feedback via email at: lquiroga.author@gmail.com.