Marcia Lee Harris

Fanny Bixby Spencer: Long Beach's Inspirational Firebrand Marcia Lee Harris

The last daughter born to Jotham Bixby, the "Father of Long Beach," Fanny Bixby Spencer (1879-1930) carved her own singular and eccentric path across California history. Born to wealth and power, she chose a boldly independent, egalitarian lifestyle in an age when women's lives were largely confined to domesticity. Fanny served with the Long Beach Police Department as America's first policewoman. She was a founder of the city of Costa Mesa in Orange County. Her humanitarian efforts reached across ethnicities and social standing. Yet beyond her civic accomplishments, Fanny was provocative as a poet, artist, pacifist, suffragist, child advocate, foster mother and humanitarian. Marcia Lee Harris captures this fascinating woman's remarkable life, enhanced by Fanny's own poetry and soulful reflections.