bjgreen
(Image: from “Way Back When: Santa Barbara in 1918,” courtesy of teachhistory.com)
By Betsy J. Green
In addition to families receiving the dreaded telegram about young men killed on the battlefields of Europe, local families were also receiving telegrams about enlisted men who died of the Spanish flu in army camps shortly after leaving home.
In November 1918, the families of William P. Fasioli and Dennison Ernest Christensen learned that their sons had died in camps in California.
Betsy’s Way Back When book — 1919 — is now available in local bookstores and at Amazon.com. This is the sixth book in her series of the history of Santa Barbara, one year at a time. Learn more at
