Community leader Elizabeth 'Liz' Goldberg dies at ... - Almanac News

By Marion Softky
Almanac Staff Writer
Jim Rapley, who died peacefully
on Aug. 31 at 105,
was a legend in his time.
A third-generation rancher
on Skyline, he ran cattle on
Langley Hill for 55 years. And
he had a special talent for spinning
tales about the old days,
back to the times when both
sets of grandparents ranched
the Peninsula hills.
With a slow, down-home
twang, “Jimmy”
would
lean back in
his chair, and
tell about the
time his father
was a kid and
met two grizzly
cubs and their
mother near
La Honda; or
his first drunk
with the hermit
of Jasper
Ridge; or the lady from the
stagecoach who passed out at
The Landings, his grandparents’
stage stop where Skyline
Boulevard now meets Old La
Honda Road; or the last cattle
drive, when all the cows got
loose. And on and on.
“He listened very, very
intensely,” recalls Hildegard
Jackson, a Skyline neighbor
and close friend for more than
40 years. “He could tell the
story of the past in the finest
detail — which made the past
so much more alive. I always
admired that.”
Jimmy Rapley was born
on July 29, 1902, the fourth
of nine children. He actually
grew up living on Cedar
Street (now Buckthorn Way)
in Menlo Park. His mother
had had enough of the hassle
of raising children in the
mountains, he said in a 1982
interview, “so that’s how we
moved to the lowlands.”
Jimmy attended the old St.
Joseph School before it was torn
down. He also remembered
the 1906 earthquake, not the
earthquake itself as much as the
excitement it caused. “At nighttime,
you could stand in the
yard, and you could see the sky
was red,” he said. “These people
were coming wanting to sleep
in the barn, carrying a parrot,
or pushing a baby buggy.”
Jimmy loved riding with his
father, who hauled logs and
hay and grain, and also drove
the local water tank truck to
PEOPLE
Jim Rapley, last of the
Skyline cowboys, dies at 105
deliver water. On these trips
he absorbed stories of the land
and its people. He remembered
his father pointing out
“a whole family buried under
that oak tree, a guy hung
under that other oak tree
down by Searsville.”
In those days kids worked the
old-fashioned way. Jimmy put
in time working at Duff and
Doyle, the old general store in
Menlo Park; caddying “for two
bits” at the Menlo Golf and
Country Club; dismantling
Rancher Jim Rapley was known
for his yarns of the old days
— cattle drives, stagecoaches,
grizzlies, the 1906 earthquake,
moonshine, and colorful
characters who roamed the hills.
1982 photo by Marion Softky
buildings from Camp Fremont
after World War I; and working
as a dairyman at the old Diamond
Ranch above Searsville.
When he was 15, Jimmy
passed up Central High School
to rent some land on Skyline
and start his first herd of cows.
“It was not a very big herd, but
it was a beginning,” he said.
By the 1930s, he bought the
family ranch off Rapley Ranch
Road from his parents. Through
many years, he tended cattle, his
own and others’, for meat and
milk products. “We worked
around the clock. No one was
in bed at daylight,” he said.
Mr. Rapley built a reputation
for being able to handle horses
— and mules. For a while he
drove teams of mules with a
“reputation,” hauling dirt from
the construction of the pipelines
bringing water from the Hetch
Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite
to the Pulgas Water Temple.
Jimmy also trained an
untrainable Morgan stallion
for a colorful character named
Charlie McGonical, an amputee
with hooks for hands. The
trick for training horses, Jimmy
Rapley said, was to treat
them just like kids. “You don’t
■ MORE ON JIM RAPLEY
try to work with the backside;
you work with the head.”
While Jimmy was still a
bachelor in the shack he built,
lots of relatives would drop
off their kids to stay with him
during the summer for wholesome
work and play. In 1946
he married Anne Foley, the
sister of one of those kids. She
still lives in Redwood City.
In those days, the ranching
families on Skyline were
close. They worked and played
together and helped each other
out. Ami Jacqua,
daughter
of neighboring
ranchers
Rudolph and
Gerda Isenberg,remembers
Jimmy
Rapley fondly.
He helped her
father with
their cattle, fed
their family big
ranch breakfasts,
taught the kids about
horses and cows, and sang for
them while they were riding.
“He was wonderful with
children, He was a wonderful
neighbor and teacher and
mentor,” says Ms. Jacqua, who
still lives down Langley Hill
Road. “He had no kids of his
own, so we were his family.”
Seven years ago, Jim and
Anne Rapley’s peaceful aging
was horribly interrupted when
their house caught fire and
burned during a January storm.
They were rescued and taken in
by neighbors Bruce and Hildegard
Jackson. They stayed
with the Jacksons for six weeks
before moving off the hill to a
rest home in Redwood City.
The Jacksons have been visiting
them almost daily ever
since. His death will leave a huge
void in our life, says Ms. Jackson.
“With each individual —
friends, family, neighbors — he
had an individual relationship. It
was absolutely amazing.”
Mr. Rapley is survived by his
wife, Anne, of Redwood City,
and a sister, Pauline Murphy
of Los Altos.
A celebration of Mr. Rapley’s
life is being planned. A
■ To read the 2002 cover story, “Jim Rapley turns 100,” go to:
http://www.almanacnews.com/morgue/2002/2002_07_31.rapley.html
■ To read six of “Jim Rapley’s yarns on the old days,” go to:
http://www.almanacnews.com/morgue/2002/2002_07_31.rapleyyarns.html
REAL ESTATE Q&A
by Monica Corman
Looking for Shifts in the Market
Q: I am in the market to buy a
house but want to see if the downward
trend in real estate prices in
other parts of the country is affecting
the market here. Do you see a shift
from a sellers’ market to a buyers’
market happening here?
A: Many buyers are asking the same
question as you are. Based on activity
from the first weeks in September, the
answer is no. Well-priced properties in
prime locations continue to get multiple
offers, although perhaps fewer offers
than there were earlier this year.
In the past few weeks I have observed
that buyers are more hesitant to say
that they want to make an offer. They
seem to be waiting to see if there will
be an opportunity to get a “deal” if the
property doesn’t get any other offers.
But as soon as they realize that the
property is going to sell and that if they
want a chance to buy it they had better
make an offer, they step forward and the
market continues much as it has been
all year long.
Why is the market strong here? There
is still very low inventory for the numbers
of buyers in the market. And this
is likely to continue for the foreseeable
future. Most homeowners aren’t selling
unless they have a place to move to. If
they are planning to stay in the area, it
is not easy to find the right property in
such a tight market. So they stay put.
My advice to you is not to sit on the
sidelines but to prudently look for the
right property and if you find it, don’t
hesitate to make a strong offer. This will
get you the house you want.
For answers to any questions you may have on real estate, you may
e-mail me at mcorman@apr.com or call 462-1111, Alain Pinel Realtors.
I also offer a free market analysis of your property.
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September 19, 2007 ■ The Almanac ■ 7