Ramona Rieke was born in 1890 in Pomona, California, to Frederick William and Kunigande Elizabeth Horst Rieke. With three older sisters and one brother, the household was full of life. The Rieke women were strong and determined and their legacy as stalwart feminists was the stuff of legend in the succeeding generations. She attended Oceanside High School. About those early days, she wrote: “Oceanside began a new life for me. As a member of Oceanside’s first germ of a High School, I joined fifteen or sixteen girls with one teacher for the first year. Eventually there was a principal (and teachers for music, German/Latin, history, math, and English). We dearly loved our faculty and school. The girls had a basketball team and were the champions of the county we had to buy our suits that were made of wool bloomers and a full skirt reaching below our knees. Our loyalty was magnificent. I guess because we helped create the first High School in Oceanside. So I became one of five girls who composed the first graduating class from Oceanside High School. I will never cease being grateful to my family and the community who gave not money but of their time and interest.” She graduated from San Diego Normal School (now SDSU) and began her career of elementary education—teaching in schools in the Los Angeles City School System. Reflective of her love of nature, she spent the summers in the Southern Sierras with family and friends. She was involved in various organizations including a retired teachers club, her church, and local Women’s Club. She died in March of 1986.