Margaret “Rocky” Smith Best, 74; antiques expert, Country Day leader
Rocky Best, a Point Loma resident and proprietor of Rocky’s Antiques, Books and Collectibles on Park Boulevard passed away at her home on April 3 after a short battle with throat cancer.
She was attended by her husband, Charles Best, and San Diego Hospice.
Rocky was not only a resident of the Point Loma community for the last 22 years and deeply involved with her antiques business in University Heights, but also had strong ties to the La Jolla area.
She was born Dec. 10, 1933 in Newport, R.I., to Margaret and James Smith. Her father, a graduate of the Naval Academy and a Marine Corps general, served in the Pacific Theater with the 1st Marine Division and worked with units of the Navajo Code Talkers.
Rocky graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington, D.C., with the class of 1952. At Wilson, Rocky was president of Omega Phi Delta Sorority and part of the court of the May Queen.
Rocky attended the University of Maryland, College Park, where she pledged Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and was a candidate for the 1952 Homecoming Queen.
That fall she met Stewart “Stu” Brown, a graduate of UC Berkeley who was an investment counselor in Washington, D. C. After a whirlwind courtship, the two were married in Newport and returned to La Jolla, where Stu was employed as a stockbroker with Merrill Lynch. Rocky’s aunt, Helen Holt, helped found the La Jolla Athenaeum in 1957. In La Jolla, Rocky pursued a number of endeavors, including working as a shop girl at Saks Fifth Avenue and at Adelaide’s Flower Shop. She was especially active with the local bookselling community, then centered around Larry and Gerry McGilvery and with John and Barbara Cole’s bookshop.
Rocky was also very active with the Balmer School in the early 1950s, when the kindergarten through fifth grade classes were held in the old John Cole’s Bookshop adjacent to the La Jolla Art Museum. Balmer then became La Jolla Country Day School.
After living in the then-deserted Sorrento Valley, Rocky and family moved to a home at the beach in Del Mar. During the winter, they turned their home into a day-care center. Summers were spent in Julian, where Rocky became a founding member of the then-secret Julian Botanical Society, an early local endeavor to genetically improve the natural resistance of native plants, and joined the Antique Bottle Club.
In the early 1980s, Rocky established Rocky’s Antiques, Books, and Collectibles in Burlingame, now part of the regentrified South Park. The store became a cynosure for local poets, books scouts, antique buffs and interior decorators. In 1992, she relocated to University Heights, where, with partner Marilyn Lee, she opened an antique mall on Park Boulevard. Along the way, she developed a proficiency in the identification of glassware and ceramics. Everyone remembers her for her compassion, common sense and general cheerfulness. She was a pioneer in the revitalization of both South Park and of University Heights.
She is survived by her husband of 22 years, Charles Best, who runs a rare-book business from the couple’s home on Rosecrans Street.
Rocky is also survived by her son, Chris; daughter-in-law Arlene; three grandchildren, Jeremy, Levi, and Erin Tyler; a sister, Sandy Thorpe of San Diego; and two brothers, Pebble Smith of Willow Creek and Brick Smith of Tennessee.
Donations may be made in her name to San Diego Hospice, Friends of the Hervey/Point Loma Branch Library, or the La Playa Trail Association. Private memorial services were planned.