The Pink Lady of Yorba Cemetery

It’s said that every two to five years, in the wee small hours of June 15th, the ghost of Alvina de Los Reyes (a.k.a. the "Pink Lady") rises from her grave in the historic Yorba Cemetery. It’s said she died in a buggy accident on her way back from a dance in 1910, and that her spirit appears to wear the same pink formal dress she wore on the night of her death.

Indeed, Alvina del Los Reyes (nee Bustemante) did die on December 2, 1910, at age thirty-one. She was the wife of farm laborer Francisco Navarro de Los Reyes, and was buried at Yorba Cemetery on December 4th, after a funeral at St. Boniface Catholic Church in Anaheim. 

However, she was not thrown from a buggy. Her official cause of death was pneumonia. And the 1910 U.S. Census shows she was raising seven children at the time -- So if she'd ever attended elegant parties, she likely didn't have time for them by 1910. 

And to throw even more cold water on the fire,... In 1998 Alvina's grand-nephew, Arthur Peralta, told the Yorba Linda Star, "...She died in childbirth. She was not returning from any dance." 

Marriage affidavit for Alvina Bustamente and Francisco (de Los) Reyes, 1901.

So where did the legend come from? 

About fifty-five years ago, Yorba Linda librarian Mary Ruth Erickson needed a Halloween tale for children's story time. She cobbled together bits of various old ghost stories she'd heard over the years and applied them to local sites and local family names. She created the Pink Lady story. (El Toro Memorial Park already had a spectral “Blue Lady,” and Capistrano already had a phantom “Woman in White.”) Kids took the story to heart and shared it all over north Orange County. Adults soon followed suit.

Yorba Cemetery, circa 1969. Before it was completely surrounded by tract housing and became part of Woodgate Park. (Photo courtesy Orange County Archives)

Amazingly, by the late 1970s the tale was already treated as "old folklore." Today, many versions of the Pink Lady story circulate all over the Internet (and schoolyards) as fact. (Also, there have been many articles in the Yorba Linda Star.)

As the story circulated, a few brave folk would occasionally come out to the cemetery to watch for the ghost. "I spent a long and cold night there with a camera crew back in college in the mid-1980s," writes artist Chris Butler. "No, we captured nothing more than headcolds! But it is a fond memory."

Eventually, the story became so well-known that hundreds of people would crowd around the fences at the cemetery each June 15th to watch for the Pink Lady's return. The staff of OC Parks' historical division -- which manages the cemetery -- is always prepared for the onslaught of those who might try jumping the cemetery’s fence to get closer to the ectoplasmic action.

“One favorite moment,” a Parks staffer said, “ was when a woman excitedly pointed out the glowing ‘orb’ hovering over the cemetery, which shifted in color from red to green. I pointed out that it was a stoplight in the distance.”

But don't let the lack of ghosts deter you! The Yorba Cemetery is still definitely worth a visit -- especially when free historical tours are given by experts Melanie Goss and Ann Nepsa, 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., on first Saturday of each month (except May). 

Per OC Parks' website, "The cemetery was established on land originally part of Bernardo Yorba’s 13,000-acre Rancho Cañon de Santa Ana, ...granted to him in 1834. After his death in 1858, Bernardo’s will deeded property to the Catholic Church containing the San Antonio Chapel and the cemetery.  Residents of the Santa Ana Canyon, many of them descendants of pioneering rancho-era families, were buried at this cemetery from 1860 till the cemetery’s closure in 1939."

Each tour provides a fascinating look at the history of the area and the individuals and families who have lived there over the centuries. 

Yorba descendants gather for the dedication of Yorba Cemetery as a County Historic Park on March 5, 1975.

[Update, Sept. 2024: Much to the delight of OC Parks staff, the number of gawkers at Pink Lady Night has dwindled each year since this post went up and since other local historians also started sharing the true origins of the story.]