Our mother, Elizabeth, sang her way through almost 88 years of life, beginning at age 8 in 1938. She recalled that “an aunt gave me a book of old-time favorite songs with piano accompaniment; I played and sang every song in the book.” Her first solo public appearance was in the 5th grade, at a Farm Bureau meeting in the Santa Ynez Valley at age 10. “How excited I was!” she would tell us.
Her excitement never waned. Even after a debilitating stroke four months ago on Christmas morning, her gentle nighttime somniloquies were in song.
Elizabeth Erro grew up on her parents’ Orella Ranch at Refugio Beach, on an idyllic stretch of coastline with only 40 or so ranching families spread between Ellwood and Point Conception. Her rural upbringing, along with musical talent, informed her long life.