Left: A painting by Estell Rouse. Center: Estell Rouse organized the creation and installation of the Riverside De Anza statue located at Market Street and Fourteenth Street. Right: Estell Rouse.

S Estell Rouse

Estell began her career as a nurse, though she retired when she married, she helped form The Nightingales, and organization that continues to fund nursing scholarships.

She was also an artist, sculpting in wood and metal and is listed in “Artists in California 1786—1940” by Edan Milton Hughes (Hughes Publishing 1989

Estell was president of the Riverside Art Association in 1937—1938 and during that year, she launched “Operation De Anza.” She committed her efforts to commissioning and raising a statue of Spanish explorer Juan Bautista De Anza, who passed through Riverside in 1774 and again in 1776.

She chaired the committee for the next three years as Sherri Peticolas designed the sculpture. The Federal Arts Project, a branch of the Federal Works Project Administration, executed the design in marble. The great grandson of De Anza, a boy named Lastenau, posed as the model.