Category: Legends

Pedro “Pete” Obregon (1898-1991) was a kind and generous man of Tempe who did a great deal to give back to his community over the course of his lifetime.  Born to a pioneer family in Tempe in 1898, Pete Obregon was one of ten children.  His Yaqui father, Serapio Obregon, made his way up to Tempe from Sonora, Mexico, and purchased land in the San Pablo neighborhood in 1887.  In 1902, he purchased a large lot at the east edge of San Pablo on Dewey Street where Pete Obregon would live for most of his life.  As they grew up in Tempe, Pete Obregon and his sister and brothers did well in school and learned the skills and values of their pioneer parents.  Pete Obregon became a farmer, but he also worked for many years at the Hayden Flour Mill.  In 1958, Pete and his wife, Fedelia, sold the family homestead at 540 E. Dewey Street in the playfully named Mickey Mouse barrio as Arizona State University expanded in the late 1950s.  Pete, Fidelia, and their family headed east to buy a farm along Old Transmission Road, at the southeast corner of what we know today as University Drive and Smith Road.  Known in the community as “Don Pedro,” Pete Obregon is lovingly remembered by his family today for his guidance, hard work, generosity, and spirit for serving his family, friends, and community.   

Tempe historian Shirley Blanton has been a champion for local history for many years.  Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Shirley has called Tempe home since 1948.  That’s the year that her parents – Maude and John Randolph – decided that it was time to move out west from Illinois. Shirley immediately embraced her new home, which she remembers as a “very active little town.”  Shirley met her future husband on a blind date, and in 1950 she married Ralph Blanton.  Two years later, Ralph joined Tempe’s volunteer firefighters, a career move that would shape the lives of this young couple for decades to come.  He served the Tempe Fire Department for nearly 30 years, after which Shirley set out to write the department’s history.

Over the years, Shirley became a student of Tempe history overall.  A long-time member of the Old Settlers of Tempe – a pioneer organization established by Niels Petersen in 1902 – she contributed many stories to the “Memories of Old Settlers” book published in 1996 to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Tempe.  In 2001, Shirley published For Whom the “Town Bull” Tolls: A History of the Tempe Fire Department, 1894 – 2000.  In 2003, the Tempe History Museum turned Shirley’s epic history book into an exhibit.  In 2007, Shirley published another volume of local history which featured over 200 historic photos.  Her Images of America: Tempe book was a wide-reaching history of the city, covering over 130 years of history with a rich assembly of photos and contributors. 

For their lifetimes of dedication to community service and Tempe’s history, Shirley and Ralph Blanton were featured among Tempe’s century-and-a-half of movers, shakers, and community advocates in the 2016 book Legendary Locals of Tempe.  Shirley Blanton’s love of history and community service have placed her among the truly Legendary Tempeans who have inspired love and service dedication in our city.

Born in St. David, Arizona in 1903 and nurtured in Mesa and Tempe, L. Alton “Pat” Riggs, Senior, graduated from Mesa High School and attended Arizona State Teachers College, now known as Arizona State University, and received a teaching certificate. He taught seven years at Franklin School in Mesa. He attended law school at the University of Arizona and earned the law degree in 1938. Riggs was elected as a Democrat to the State Legislature in 1930, 1932, 1934, and in 1960. He served four years as an Army Lieutenant Colonel in Europe during World War II. From 1955 to 1959, Riggs was a special assistant to the Arizona Attorney General, and twice a Deputy Maricopa County Attorney. L. Alton Riggs, Senior, was Commander of the William Bloys, American Legion Post in Tempe. He served on the Tempe City Council in 1950 to 1954; and from 1956 to 1960, a period of 8 years. He also served as the President of the Tempe School Board. L. Alton “Pat” Riggs, Senior, was a practicing attorney in Tempe from 1946 to 1976 . His daughter, Patricia Riggs, recalls that “He was a personal friend of Governor Moeur, visited the Moeur home in Tempe often, and the Governor delivered my two brothers as a favor to my father. There are so many more awards and achievements that my father earned in Tempe, and stories to be told, that I could not possibly name and relate them all. He always loved the City and worked for Tempe’s growth and improvement.”

While in Tempe in 1871 and with his sons as irrigation development workers to contain the raging Salt River to make water available for farming and settlement, Tiburcio Sotelo of Hermosillo, Mexico, purchased 160-acres of Tempe land located on the present-day southeast corner of Rural Road and University Drive—named the Sotelo Addition. Upon his death shortly thereafter, his widow, Manuela Sánchez Sotelo, moved from Tucson to Tempe with her children and made their home on the Sotelo Addition. The family planted wheat, garden vegetables, and herbs which Manuela successfully sold and traded with her Anglo-American neighbors. She developed important cultural and social relationships and friendships with them—helping to end discriminatory and racial practices against Mexican and Mexican Americans of Tempe. Within a few years, Manuela Sánchez Sotelo became a legal shareholder in the Tempe Irrigating Canal Company, one of few women in the Salt River Valley to hold water rights to her land and property –and in her name. Her neighbor, Charles Trumbull Hayden, among the “founders” of Tempe, gained access to her property so that his Hayden Branch off the Tempe Canal could run water to his Tempe flour mill on Mill Avenue. This helped Tempe prosper and grow to develop into the major city it has become. Manuela Sánchez Sotelo died of pneumonia in her Tempe home at the age of 82, in 1902. Her legacy lives on in the many descendants that still make their home in Tempe and the surrounding communities.

Dr. Octaviana Salazar Trujillo, born and raised in Guadalupe, is a graduate of Tempe’s McClintock High School. Arizona State University is her academic home–the first Yaqui woman from Guadalupe to receive three degrees in Education from Arizona State University: the Bachelor of Arts, the Master’s degree, and the Ph.D. degree. She is the first woman elected to serve as Chair, Pascua Yaqui tribe of Arizona. For at least 45 years, Dr. Trujillo has devoted her life and academic career to bring educational change and reform to indigenous students, communities, and people of Arizona, especially women. They are the salt of the earth. Her international travels and proven leadership on behalf of Arizona and the United States have brought her acclaim and attention and recognition from President Barack Obama, who appointed her to serve on committees that reflect the importance of global collaboration among nations that seek solutions to problems dealing with climate change, the environment, and the preservation of natural resources. Dr. Octaviana Salazar is now Professor Emerita, Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff and continues her work and research on the history and culture of the Pascua Tribe of Arizona.