Melanie Ott Holden passed away at her home on March 31, 2014. Born in Evanston, Ill., on May 12,1938, Melanie moved to Laguna Beach with her family in 1941. Her father was renowned sculptor, Peterpaul Ott. After graduating from Laguna Beach High School, Melanie continued her education in Germany, mastering six foreign languages and working as an interpreter for the Kraft Food Company.
Holden returned to Laguna Beach in 1963, often remarking that she “lives where other people come to vacation.” She was predeceased by her husband, well-known surfboard shaper, Bill Holden. Survivors include stepson Brad Holden; brothers, Peter and Alex Ott; sisters Stephanie Mickesh and Elizabeth Tice; plus nieces and nephews. A family memorial service will be held sometime in May.
Hello, My name is Mary Ina Lindeman Adelson, daughter of Weikko Oliver (Oliva) Lindeman,born in Detroit, MI March 9, 1915, and grew up in the Chicago area until he left for the Army in 1940. My grandmother, Aino Alexandra Nieminen Lindeman lived in the Chicago area raising my father as a single parent and I have a picture of my father’s where he identified the folks on the picture as my mother, her sister and the four Otts. I found on line that Peterpaul Ott possessed a wood sculpture my father made as a young man and he submitted it to the Chicago Art Institute in 1936 to be on display of the regional artists for that year. The sculpture was named “David” and was on loan by Peterpaul Ott. I have been researching my father’s early life to find out how he became an artist. He raised a family in Lantana, FL after the war and was a cabinet maker, but in his spare time he was constantly “doodling” and some of those doodles became small wood sculptures. I highly suspect my father and grandmother (and possible one of grandmother’s sisters) were good friends of the Ott family while they lived in the Chicago area, and I suspect that is how my father became a wood sculpter. If anyone in the Peterpaul Ott family knows of this sculpture, David, that my father made, or remembers and information about Aino and Oliver Lindeman while the Otts were in the Chicago Illinois area, please let me know. Most Sincerely Mary Lindeman Adelson (Tallahassee, FL; 850-422-2667)