Huntington Beach Happenings
by: Chris MacDonald
Published: November 24, 2025
HUNTINGTON BEACH...Huntington Beach Assistant City Clerk Juan Esquivel provided an action agenda link to the previous Huntington Beach City Council Meeting Agenda from Tuesday November 18th, 2025. Click here.
Huntington Beach Planning Commission Vice Chairman Brett Bush said: The Planning Commission approved 7-0 the zone change from Industrial to commercial. Allowing for a service station with a car wash to be built at Goldenwest and Garfield in Huntington Beach.
1. Approved Environmental Assessment NO.21-001forwarding to City Council for adoption
2. Approved General Plan
3.
Amendment NO.20-001 forward to City Council for consideration Approved Zoning Text
4.
Amendment NO. 20-002 Approved Tentative Parcel Map No. 21-103 and Conditional Use Permit No. 19-021
Huntington Beach City Historian Jerry Person Remembering When -
Lets not forget Eileen Stricklin Arnold Knee
One of the first persons I met when I opened my antique store in the late 1970s was Eileen Arnold who with two of her three sons worked next to my store at Farmers Insurance on Main Street and for this week lets remember her life.
Eileen Stricklin was born in Murphysboro, Illinois on April 21, 1925 to Robert Luther and Marie Stricklin. When Eileen was three years old the family moved from Murphysboro to California in 1928 and they settled in Huntington Beach just at the time when black gold ruled the town. It had to have been a wonderful time to grow up here during the 1930s when the town was still small enough to know your neighbors.
Eileen would attend both Central Elementary and Huntington Beach High Schools and since Huntington Beach was an important oil producing area, the government sent in the military to guard our town’s rich oil deposits from invasion during World War II
.It was during this time that she met Sheldon Arnold who was stationed here and in December of 1942 the two were wed and would remain together until Sheldon’s death in the 1970s but on June 16, 1947 their first of their three sons James Sheldon Arnold was born.
By the 1950 the three were living in one of the small bungalow apartments at 111 Seventh Street and while Eileen cared for son Jim, her husband Sheldon worked in our oil field for the Standard Oil Co. During this time they got to know many of the oil workers and their families and would continue that friendship for many years.
To help out with the finances Eileen went to work as a waitress in the chicken dinner restaurant at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park. It was during this time that Cordelia Knott supervised her waitresses and everything else connected with the restaurant.
Also in 1950 that Eileen found out that she was expecting their second child.
It was in the home of Hildreth Farrell on Pine Street that our local sewing club met on February 6, 1951 to give Eileen a layette shower, instead of gifts the girls presented Eileen with money so she could buy what she needed.
Sewing club members that were present at this shower to sample the Hawaiian pie topped with whipped cream, coffee and tea included Betty Ross, Ann Mays, Barbara Knott, Marilyn Barnes, Shirley Stevans, Jackie Ross, Beth McClymonds, Phyllis Bartimore and Barbara Livermore.
On March 4, 1951 her second son Thomas Eugene was born and with the new addition a larger place to live was needed and that by 1952 the family would now be living in the Wesley area of Huntington Beach at 1107 Pine Street. Eileen watched her small family grow as her two sons entered Central Elementary School in the 1950s.
In 1958 Eileen found out that she was again expecting a child and on March 31, 1959 her last son Andrew Dale was born. The Arnolds were a familiar sight attending the First United Methodist Church on Orange Avenue.
In 1946 Eileen's father Robert L. Stricklin had become a Farmers Insurance agent in downtown Huntington Beach and in later years Eileen would work in his office as his secretary.
In 1973 Sheldon suddenly passed away leaving Eileen to care for her youngest child Andy and it was also the year that her father was thinking of retiring from the insurance business.
Eileen decided that she wanted to become an agent for Farmers, this was at a time when men dominated the insurance industry and when she received her insurance license, Eileen had the distinction of being one of the first female insurance agents in the Farmers Insurance company.
During these early times she had two partners at her Main Street office, George LaBouff and Jim Shannon and when the two men left to open their own offices in Huntington Beach, Eileen would continue to run the office that her father had started.
In the early 1970s her son Tom joined the Huntington Beach Police Department and started as a beat officer patrolling the streets of Huntington Beach. He would become one of the helicopter pilots for the city and at one time the longest active duty officer in the Huntington Beach Police force.
In May of 1976 she married Cecil Knee and they would live in one of the newly built Beachwalk townhouses on Goldenwest and at this sane time her son Jim went to work with her in the office at 324 Main Street.
She remained a Main Street businesswoman for 18 years before turning the agency over to her son Andy in 1991 to spend more time with her husband. In the 1980s she and Cecil sold their Beachwalk townhouse and began remodeling and enlarging her father’s old home at 1102 Main Street to live in. With retirement came time to travel around the country and to visit friends and relatives.
Eileen passed away peacefully on January 24, 2006 leaving behind many wonderful memories of her life in Huntington Beach. By the mid 1990s her first-born son Jim suddenly passed away and in October 2013 her third son Andy died body surfing by our historic pier.