Rindge, Rhoda May Knight (1864–1941)

“May” Knight Rindge was a schoolteacher from Trenton, Michigan, who came to California after marrying Fredrick Hastings Rindge in 1887. Her husband's dream was to have a “farm near the ocean,” and they found Malibu, California, where he started a ranch. They had three children before he died in 1905, and as a widow, May took on her husband's business interests.

In her attempts to keep her land from being broken up, May earned the title Queen of the Malibu from the press as she vigorously fought legal battles for a quarter of a century. She defended Malibu Ranch's privacy all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1923 case Rindge Co. v. Los Angeles County. Los Angeles won by right of eminent domain. ...