Fence Post Biography

Fence Post in quiet contemplation at her ranch in the Santee Hills. “It would be an honor to give back to the community that has given me so much.”

The tree that became Fence Post carries the wisdom of the ages. Sprouting around the time Genghis Khan expanded his empire in the early part of the 12^th century, Fence Post lived undisturbed in a redwood grove in what is now a protected old growth forest near Eureka, California. Fence Post began her public life after being felled to support the 1880’s post-Gold Rush housing boom.

Though cut considerably, the remaining tree that would become Fence Post gained international fame as a professional athlete. For years she competed in professional birling at lumberjack water sports festivals throughout North America. Always in search of new and exciting challenges, she returned to California to begin the second phase of her professional athletic life, traveling the Scottish and Highland Games circuit.

Fence Post takes first place in the Cuyahoga Lumberjack Games, c. 1926

Fence Post competing at the San Diego Highland Games, 1990

She stopped competing in 1999, retiring to a southern California lumber mill. Cut into posts, she was initially selected to serve as part of a fence for Steele Canyon High School but was returned to the local Home Depot where her friend, campaign manager and former part-time Home Depot employee Myrna Minkoff, convinced her she could play a far more supportive role in the public school system as a member of the school board.

From the start Fence Post’s campaign has generated a lot of buzz, and not just because of her celebrity status. She offers Grossmont voters a healthy alternative to the current board’s fundamentalist philosophy. Asked if she supports posting pictures of aborted fetuses at high school campuses, Fence Post says, “Absolutely not. I’m a redwood fence post. I support other boards and can even help make a quality outdoor deck. Besides, I think they use aluminum tripods to hold up those pictures.”

Fence Post enjoys spending her time on her 12-acre ranch where she currently is working on a memoir of her life as a professional athlete. Though single, she has been in a long-term relationship with a Taylor Koa series guitar custom designed for a member of the Dave Matthews Band; he lives nearby at the Taylor factory showroom in El Cajon.