The legend of the Pink Lady ghost – a crying 17-year-old woman wearing a pink gown haunting the old Yorba Cemetery – is well known far beyond the county. Her terrible anguish is over an untimely death from a buggy accident after her prom in 1910, or so the legend goes. Many others believe her identity to be Alvina de Los Reyes, a young woman who died of pneumonia years later. OC county historian Chris Jepson recalls this story as being a fabrication created decades ago by a Yorba Linda librarian.
“It’s quite funny. She needed a Halloween story to tell, so she pieced this together from what she knew from some other local stories and it just took on a life of its own.”
So with a story forever twisted, and a name forever lost, our Pink Lady continues her unrest. She is said to appear every June 15 on even-numbered years. The cemetery she haunts dates back to 1834, when other spirits may have lost their identities. We may never know who she is since the cemetery has remained gated and locked since 1939, but tours are possible through special arrangements.
Yorba Cemetery is located at Woodgate Park in Yorba Linda. Visit ocparks.com/yorbacemetery or call (714) 973-3190 for details.
