Louise Stone, a long-time resident of Santa Barbara, died in San Francisco on September 26, 2020 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease.
Louise Myra Brill was born to Sidney and Dorothy Brill in Brooklyn, New York on January 14, 1936. She attended Brooklyn public schools, including Erasmus Hall High School. Acquiring a love of baseball from her father, she was a lifelong Dodger fan – from Brooklyn to Los Angeles – and due to her love of singing, acting, and theater, Louise claimed to have seen every Broadway musical produced during her adolescent years in New York City.
Louise entered Brooklyn College in 1953 to major in Political Science, where she met her future husband, Ray Stone, in an economics class. Within a few months the two concluded they were meant for each other and married in January 1956. Ray was also an usher at the Metropolitan Opera during this time, and arranged for Louise to see her first opera, Carmen, which led to her lifelong appreciation of opera.
Louise and Ray next moved to Providence, Rhode Island in 1957 with their newborn daughter, Karen. After Ray received his graduate degree from Brown University, the family moved west to California, where their son Robert was born. After three years in the Los Angeles area, the family of four moved to Santa Barbara, where Louise was able to finish her bachelor’s degree at UCSB in 1967. All or part of the Stone family lived in Santa Barbara for the next 54 years.
Always a lover of politics and current events, Louise became a member of the League of Women Voters, was active in Democratic party politics, and was an early member of the Santa Barbara Women’s Political Committee. During the 1990s, Louise was a member of the Santa Barbara County Grand Jury, was appointed by the Mayor to sit on a number of committees and panels, and was a dedicated volunteer at the Santa Barbara chapters of Planned Parenthood and Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic. She was also a member of the Humanist Society of Santa Barbara and of Vistas Lifelong Learning.
Louise and Ray moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2017 to be near family. She is survived by Ray, Karen, and Robert, her grandchildren Kelly Walker and Ryan Eshoff, and great-grandchildren Clara Walker, and Lucy Walker.
