Island Icon: The By Karen Scanlon, CHA Volunteer
Grimaud Family
The Coronado Historical Association’s “Island Icons” monthly column is the product of a special archival project conducted by CHA’s volunteers. True to its mission to serve as Coronado’s primary center for community history, CHA archives these special interviews with Coronado icons. These historical vignettes feature insights and personal memories from Island Icons who share their life experiences in Coronado, recording the personal histories that may be lost in the near future without this initiative. “The Great Depression brought us here from Fargo, North Dakota in 1934,” said Coronado resident Maurice “Swede” Grimaud. His father Andrie Faure Grimaud
The Grimaud siblings in 1992. Courtesy of the Grimaud Family
had become one of 15 million unemployed Americans.
was hardly big enough for my family but it
example, to work hard at whatever job, and
was all we had.”
to do it right.”
“Dad had worked at Cudahy Meat Factory,” Maurice continued, “until it shut
“Dad started Grimaud Landscape Service
The Grimauds had income property
down, and there was no other work. So
in the early 30’s; Ronald and I pitched in.
beside the appliance store. When the
mom, dad, sister, brother, grandparents,
Then in 1939 Dad bought a house at 461
Forsyth brothers saw Andrie was building
and I piled into the family car from Fargo
Orange Avenue,” Maurice said. “Dad was
the store, they moved into the rental and
to Coronado, slept out in the open, and the
not a well-educated man but fortunately he
opened The Mexican Village Restaurant.
trip cost us just $40.45 for gas and oil.”
met our mother, Adeline, who was a high
Maurice’s mother continued to collect
school graduate and could keep books and
rent from the property until the Forsyth
organize things.”
brothers purchased it in the early 1950s for
Seven Grimaud siblings inundated the island of Coronado in those early years. (Incidentally, sister Annette was the first
$145,000. Few people are around today to remember
baby born at the new Coronado Hospital.)
Grimaud’s Appliance Store on Orange
Maurice remembers that at the time, there
Avenue. “This was my dad’s dream to own
kid in Coronado. “There was a police officer
were many empty lots on the island and very
and operate a business,” Maurice says. “But
called Pop Millar who would walk all the
little work.
two months after opening the store, Dad
kids to the old theater and open up for free
died on Christmas Eve 1946 at age 46.
Saturday matinees. We’d see newsreels about
He had a bad heart valve, his dream was
the war, cartoons, and usually a Western.
property of Joe Delasalas at Fourth Street
short lived.” A touch of melancholy alters
Pop even made the cover of Life Magazine.”
and E Avenue, by the old Lamb’s Market. “It
Maurice’s voice as he said, “Dad taught us by
The family rented a small house on the
P40 | Coronado Magazine
Maurice has fond memories of being a