Mary “Peg” Haapa was co-publisher of the former Newport Harbor Ensign weekly
Mary “Peg” Haapa spent 30 years keeping her neighbors up to date on the news in Newport Beach.
Co-founder and publisher of the Newport Harbor Ensign weekly newspaper and longtime Corona del Mar resident, Haapa died at the age of 101 on Nov. 8 in Windsor, Calif.
Haapa founded the Ensign in 1948 with her husband, Arvo Haapa – or “Hop” as he was known. The couple oversaw its operations until 1978.
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The Haapas first met as reporters in the early ‘40s at the Columbus Star in Ohio. World War II separated them.
Haapa’s daughter, Bonnie Haapa Denmark, said her mother would boast of joining the war effort ahead of her husband-to-be, saying “I blew him a kiss and said ‘I’m off to fight the war. Wait for me, dear.’”
As it happened, Hop wasn’t keen on waiting. He enlisted in the Army and found his sweetheart on the other side of the world.
By then, he was a U.S. Army captain and she was in the Air Force serving the 306th Bombardment Group from a base in Thurleigh, England. They dated and were married in England before the end of the war – which presented a few additional challenges, including their honeymoon being interrupted by a bombing raid, Denmark said.
Earlier this year, at a Memorial Day celebration in Windsor, Haapa was honored for her service in the war, during which she ran American Red Cross clubs in England, Germany and France, Denmark said.
Once home from the war, the Haapas returned to their journalistic roots and started the Newport Beach Ensign, dubbed at one point “The Official Newspaper of the City of Newport Beach.”
Starting with a very small subscriber base, the Haapas would deliver the paper themselves by car – Denmark shared a story of her mother having to slowly guide her father along on a particularly foggy morning as he tossed papers from the car window.
But readership grew and the Haapas were able to pay other people to deliver the paper. They continued to hand-deliver to their most famous subscriber: John Wayne.
Denmark said she and her sister grew up helping their parents with the paper – pushing brooms at 5, setting headlines at 10 and typesetting by 15. All the while, Denmark said she saw her community-focused mother giving her all to make their paper as good as it could be.
“She was a real go-getter – very social, very plugged into the community. She really cared about the community,” Denmark said. “They were real Orange County people.”
Haapa also wrote articles for the paper – she had a habit of playfully leaving a row of commas at the bottom of her stories with a loving note to her husband nudging him to put them wherever they go, Denmark said.
After 30 years, the Haapas sold the paper to enjoy their retirement – they enjoyed a full six years of adventures before Arvo Haapa died in 1984.
Peg Haapa is survived by her daughters, Karin Puleo of Windsor and Bonnie Denmark of Brewster, New York, as well as six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.