Evergreen Cemetery: Reversing Cherished Myths

Dr. Traci Bliss, speaker

How much effort did it take to dislodge deeply-embedded but inaccurate cemetery history? Professor Bliss will discuss her unusual research process followed by compelling stories: people of Evergreen Cemetery - - born in the 19th century - - who helped define Santa Cruz. Learn about prominent musicians and artists ardently committed to the community, resilient Chinese and the pioneer families who supported them, and the women who defied social norms to make enduring contributions.

Traci Bliss, an award-winning emerita professor of education, authored with Randall Brown Evergreen Cemetery of Santa Cruz (2020), beginning with the interconnected lives of undaunted pioneers and concluding with the extraordinary cemetery restoration. In 2022, her short documentary “The Restoration of Evergreen Cemetery,” received the Spirit of Action Award from the Santa Cruz Film Festival. The film will be shown as part of the presentation. Bliss’s  ancestors — the Imus family — donated the land for Evergreen Cemetery a decade after they began settling in Santa Cruz in the late 1840s. Bliss is the 7th generation of Imus women to live here.

Her 2021 book, Big Basin Redwood Forest: California's Oldest State Park, has also generated considerable interest throughout our county and the broader San Francisco Bay Area. Dr. Bliss received her BA, MA, and PhD degrees from Stanford.