Heart and Soul of the Elfin Forest
Yolanda Waddell, loving wife and mother, gentle warrior, and beloved friend to a large and diverse community, passed away peacefully at the age of 93 in Morro Bay, California, on Friday, August 21. During her final days she was accompanied by her husband, Jay, daughter Marisa, and son Theo. On her last day, she was still smiling, joking, blowing kisses and telling each of them, “I love you very much.”
Yolanda lived her life with open arms, kindness, courage, and persistence. She loved nature, music, art, culture, good food, good writing, laughter, and, most of all, people. Her life was about genuine and authentic interaction with others. She made friends wherever she went and made a point of truly seeing the person in front of her. She remembered the names and stories of almost everyone she met, believed in the better nature of people, and had faith in them to be their best selves. When she saw someone who needed a friend, she became one. When she saw something in her community that needed doing, she did it.
She was an optimist, but not a passive one. She turned good ideas and intentions into action. Two of her favorite sayings were “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” and “Persistence pays.”
Nowhere is that spirit more beautifully embodied than in her greatest public legacy, the El Moro Elfin Forest; 90 acres of breathtakingly beautiful pygmy oak woodland, maritime chaparral, coastal dune scrub, riparian area, and marshland overlooking the Morro Bay Estuary — all preserved through the efforts of Yolanda and a group of dedicated neighbors and friends.
After moving to Los Osos in the late 1970s, Yolanda fell in love with the extraordinary natural area during her regular walks there with her children and the family dog, Joshua. When she learned the land might be sold for development, she organized a group of neighbors who formed the nucleus of what became the Los Osos chapter of Small Wilderness Area Preservation. What followed was a decade-long effort to raise the money needed to purchase the land from its owner and make it a public preserve — now owned by California State Parks, the State Lands Commission, and San Luis Obispo County Parks.
But for Yolanda, saving that land was only the beginning. For the rest of her life, she devoted herself to stewardship of the El Moro Elfin Forest. She served for many years on the SWAP board, which later became “Friends of El Morro Elfin Forest.” She coordinated volunteer maintenance work, led nature walks, took photographs, and became a remarkable repository of knowledge about its plants, wildlife, and history. Her passion project was writing and editing “Oakleaves,” the organization’s newsletter, interviewing naturalists, scientists and local experts — often working late into the night turning what she learned into stories for her community.
Yolanda once said she had made a promise in her mind to the Chumash women who lived on that land centuries before: she would help keep the land, plants and wildlife safe. Today, a bench overlooking a meadow along the forest boardwalk bears the inscription: “Dedicated to Yolanda Waddell, Heart and Soul of the Elfin Forest.” Long before she fell in love with the Elfin Forest, however, Yolanda was already becoming the woman who could accomplish such a feat.
Born Yolanda Carmen Bunster on May 5, 1933, in Evanston, Illinois, she grew up surrounded by a large, loving, colorful and artistic extended family. Summers spent on her aunt and uncle’s farm in northern Illinois helped instill her lifelong love of the natural world. Her family also gave her a strong sense of affection, community, cooperation, and common sense. A favorite saying passed down from her grandmother Della (née Murphy) Gerlach, who spoke German with an Irish accent — “Viele Hände machen bald ein Ende,” or “Many hands make light work” — became one Yolanda later passed along to her own children.
Music was a lifelong love, and that shared passion was partly why Yolanda and Jay fell in love. She played violin as a young woman, and viola in the Chicago Youth Symphony. Over many years, Yolanda and Jay hosted classical and jazz shows at KCBX, the San Luis Obispo NPR affiliate. Together they helped found, organize and promote the Portraits in Music chamber concert series at Cuesta College. They also helped organize the La Guitarra California International Guitar Festival. Yolanda often sang at home — sometimes little songs that she composed for Theo and Marisa, and sometimes a song to cheer up the kids or Jay. One of her favorites was “Accentuate the Positive” by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer.
Yolanda never hesitated to stand up for what she believed was right, and throughout her life when she thought action was necessary, she got involved. Over the decades she ran for school board and challenged school segregation, served as a PTA president, volunteered with the United Farm Workers, the Peace and Freedom Party, the League of Women Voters, the Morro Bay Museum of Natural History, and the El Moro Democratic Club. She was a member of the Diversity Committee at Cuesta College, a devoted supporter of the San Luis Obispo Symphony and other local music programs, and she gave countless volunteer hours to public radio and other community causes. Yolanda was gentle and kind, but she was also a positive force to be reckoned with.
Her working life reflected the same broad interests and desire to be a force for good. She was at various times a writer, teacher, library worker and educator, ultimately spending 21 years in Library Media Services at Cuesta Community College, where she received numerous accolades, including Woman of Distinction and Volunteer of the Year. In retirement, she created a volunteer career for herself as a natural history journalist and editor for “Oakleaves.”
She met her beloved husband Jay Waddell through a mutual friend and was persuaded to dance with him at that friend’s wedding. After dating for a couple of summers, Yolanda characteristically turned a pleasant conversation into a plan: “If we save up enough money over spring and summer, we can be married in August.” Jay had been thinking the same thing. They married on August 31, 1963, and remained deeply in love for nearly 63 years. Their daily exchange — “I love you, my beautiful wife,” and “I love you, my wonderful, handsome husband” — continued even when they had to spend their nights apart during her last months at the Garden House Residential Care Facility in Morro Bay.
To Theo and Marisa, Yolanda was Mom, and they knew they had won the mom lottery. She filled their childhood with books and music, museums and concerts, camping trips and cultural celebrations, art lessons and music lessons, whale watching and clam digging, holidays and family gatherings. She made elaborate Halloween costumes for them and helped build enormous sheet-pillow-and-chair forts. She convinced them that raisins, yogurt and granola were preferable to sugary cereals and junk food, long before that was fashionable. And a wonderful gift she gave them — and gave to many people who had the good fortune to know her — was her belief in their capacity to meet their own goals and accomplish great things.
Her family and friends will miss her beyond measure, but the love, curiosity, courage and joy she put into the world remain — in her children, in her husband, in the enormous community of people whose lives she touched and changed, and in every live oak, wildflower, bird and winding stretch of boardwalk in the Elfin Forest she worked so hard to protect. Yolanda lived what she believed: love your neighbors, have faith in people to be their best selves, and when something matters, persist.
Yolanda leaves behind her beloved husband of nearly 63 years, Jay Waddell; daughter Marisa Waddell (Patti Whelen) and son Theo Waddell (Edith); niece Jackie Steinhauser and nephew Mark Bunster; great-nieces Alisa Steinhauser and Annie Demuth; and great-nephew Max Bunster, along with a large and loving extended family and an extraordinary community of friends.
Donations may be made in Yolanda Waddell’s honor to Friends of El Moro Elfin Forest, KCBX Public Radio, The Cuesta College Foundation, and the San Luis Obispo Symphony.
