Catherine Mulholland, granddaughter of LA's controversial water engineer, dies

The granddaughter of the engineer who delivered water from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles died today at her home in Camarillo. Mulholland offered a living link to William Mulholland, the controversial historical figure, who made the modern-day Los Angeles possible. She was 88.

Catherine was a young girl when she knew William Mulholland, an Irish self-taught engineer whose quest for water transformed Los Angeles and the places the water came from. She grew up after the St. Francis Dam failed on his watch, killing hundreds of people. That incident left her grandfather in the darkest place he would know after his engineering triumphs.

Nine years ago she told a crowd at UC Santa Barbara that making sense of his career drove her to write "William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles," an acclaimed historical account:

"I felt that the water story had enough incoherence with 'Cadillac Desert,' 'Chinatown,' muckraking schools of the 1920s and 30s it deserved another look. And I think that's what historians must always do is take another look," she told the crowd.

Catherine grew up in the San Fernando Valley at the orchard established by her father, Perry, William's oldest son. She often loaned papers and artifacts to the L.A. Department of Water and Power for public exhibitions. Three years ago she donated the bulk of that collection — water-related books and family records, and jazz 78s and designer dresses and gowns from the 20s and 30s — to Cal State Northridge. That collection offers historians an opportunity to make their own judgment of the man who muckrakers claim stole water from the Owens River Valley.

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Department spokeswoman Mary Anne Pierson says she doesn't know the cause of death, according to the Associated Press.