Longtime Anaheim Union High School District educator and noted author Louise Hitt Booth left a legacy of literature upon her passing at age 95 in 2012.
Mrs. Booth taught English, history, drama and speech at Anaheim High between 1949 and 1969. She then joined the AUHS District to develop and teach advanced placement classes and a highly successful team teaching program. Mrs. Booth retired from the District in 1977 to begin a second career writing on a variety of historical topics. A graduate of Indiana State University and the University of Southern California, Louise established herself as an author with many documentary works, including One To Twenty-Eight, an in depth history of the AUHS District from 1898 through 1980.
In addition to this chronicle, Louise published six historical monographs, three of them on the Civil War. In 2001, Fulfilling A Dream – The History of Chapman University, was published. Louise devoted many months to the research and writing of the book. A remarkable document, it continues to serve as the most comprehensive, as well as the most interesting story of Chapman’s history. The book won the 61st Annual Western Book Exhibition (2002) Award sponsored annually by the L.A.-based Rounce and Coffin Club. This award was for books judged to be the best examples of printing, design, and publishing in the western United States.
But her first love was teaching, which tremendously benefitted the children of Anaheim. She inspired many of her students to pursue higher educations and to achieve all that they could be, always instilling in them a love of the English language, literature and poetry. As the school’s drama teacher, she wrote and directed many of the plays.
Louise returned to Anaheim High in 1998 to serve on the school’s Centennial Committee, working tirelessly to create displays of photographs and facts on the founding, construction and operation of the school’s 100-year history. Louise also chaired the Orange County Historical Society Centennial Committee, working four years in planning a large array of public events. The profits funded publication of The Centennial Bibliography of Orange County, California. As managing editor, Louise received the Donald F. Pflueger Award for distinguished research and writing on local history of Southern California.
Louise was a complete and vital partner to her husband Don, a longtime professor of economics at Chapman University. The couple hosted Chapman’s famous Artist-Lecture Series. She also served for a number of years on the archives committee of the Leatherby Libraries.
For her dedication as an Anaheim High teacher and her literary legacy, Louise Booth was inducted into the Anaheim High School Hall of Fame March 4, 2016.
