Esther studied painting at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. and the Royal Academy in London, and was an internationally known artist. Her paintings were exhibited at the Salon de Pari, the annual French art show, the Royal Academy and the Grosvenor Gallery in London, as well as the Corcoran Gallery. Some of her paintings are on permanent display in the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.While living in London on Grosvenor Square, across the street from the American Embassy, Esther was invited to attend Queen Elizabeth’s Garden Party at Buckingham Palace. She was an annual viewer, from a British Admiralty window, of the Queen’s birthday Trooping of the Colors, and attended the funerals of King George and Winston Churchill. She also discussed South Mountain oil leases with J. Paul Getty at a party at Claridge’s.Esther was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Bloomsbury Women’s Club in London. While in England she was privileged to travel from Land’s End, the southernmost point of England, to John O’Groat’s, the northernmost point of Scotland. She visited most of the countries in Western Europe.Esther and Wendell were blessed with a daughter, Mary Christine, who provided them with two grandchildren. Unfortunately, Lou Gehrig’s disease claimed Esther’s life on February 7, 1977, and she rests near her brother Charles and her parents in the Santa Paula Cemetery.
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Esther Hyde Furnas, Class of 1929
December 13, 2000
Santa Paula High School
By B. J. Harding, President, SPUHS Alumni Association
Harry and Olinda Richardson Hyde had four children, Elmer (‘27), Esther (‘29), Charles (‘35), and Gladys. The Hyde family ranch was across the Santa Clara River, and in the days of grammar school for these children there was no bridge so it was ford the river in the winter or live in town. Mrs. Hyde took a house on 6th Street so his children could attend school in the wintertime.At SPUHS our subject Esther was in the English Honor Society, the Spanish Club, the senior play, on the El Solano staff, on the girls basketball team, in the pageant and in the orchestra all four years. H. Peyton Johnson was the director, and his specialty was the violin. Esther became the first violinist at SPUHS, and later at Ventura Junior College. She went on to the All Southern California College Orchestra in Santa Barbara as the violin soloist, and played at many public and special events.Esther’s special friends at SPUHS were Bernice Boles (‘28), Dora Sharp (‘29) and Irene O’Leary (‘29). The girls loved to hike and ride horseback over South Mountain and they knew all the hidden springs and trails on the mountain. Esther used to help clear the “SP” near the top of the mountain, located on the Richardson land.Esther graduated from UC in Berkeley in 1939 with a BA in English, and taught in Bakersfield as well as high schools on the islands of Maui and Oahu in Hawaii.Esther was active in the MYF of the Methodist Church and it was here that she met and fell in love with Wendell Furnas (‘34), who became her husband in 1943 while he was a ensign in the U.S. Navy. Wendell’s career took them to Boulder, Colorado, Alexandria, Virginia, San Francisco, California, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and London, England.
