Obituary: Lee Love Ghione remembered as Huntington Beach wonder woman
Longtime Surf City Splash organizer Lee Love Ghione liked to show up to the annual New Year’s Day dip into the Pacific Ocean in her “Wonder Woman” costume.It made sense, considering how much Ghione contributed to Huntington Beach over the decades.“She was the heartbeat of this town,” Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum executive director Peter “PT” Townend said.Ghione died on the evening of March 26 at Chapman Global Medical Center due to complications after being hospitalized for a couple of months, originally due to spinal stenosis. She was 70 years old.She was president of the Sand Dollars of Huntington Beach, which coordinates the Miss Huntington Beach Scholarship Competition each year. Lee Love Ghione poses with a painting of her dog in 2025. (Courtesy of Melissa Murphy) Current Miss H.B. Gabrielle Samiy said the Sand Dollars will honor both Ghione and former longtime Sand Dollars president June Dugmore at their annual Rose Garden ceremony at City Hall on June 5. Dugmore died in February, at the age of 95.A paddle out ceremony for Ghione is being planned for the following morning, June 6, on the north side of the Huntington Beach Pier, Don Ramsey said.Ramsey said he was impressed by Ghione, who he used to see swimming the pier back in the 1980s and ‘90s. She took the splash, originally conceived by Mike Parks, and turned it into the popular event it is today, re-branding it from the Pier Plaza Plunge to the Surf City Splash.Ghione was also co-founder of the Huntington Dog Beach.“She was into it, dude,” Ramsey said. “I would go by [the dog beach], either surfing or riding my bike, and I would stop and talk to her for a little bit. She just was always happy that she was able to do that. If you see all her pictures on Facebook, half of them are with dogs and cats. She just was an animal person, she really was.”Ghione was also known for her motto, “Love what you do, do what you love.”She was a former beauty queen herself, in 1998, for the Tall Club of Orange County. Adam “Bushman” Orozco, Melissa Murphy and Lee Love Ghione pose for a picture. (Courtesy of Melissa Murphy) “She was an amazing person,” said Ghione’s friend and local artist Melissa Murphy, better known as Melissa Murals. “She did so much for Huntington Beach behind the scenes, so much. But she never wanted the attention for it. She’d always be there behind the scenes, working, getting other people to help her out.”Ghione went to church in downtown Huntington Beach at Community Bible Church, where her pastor, Nate Dorman, had known her for close to a decade. He said she was always very generous, both with her time but also her possessions. When friends came from out of state to visit the church, she would offer up a spare room at her home or her car.Dorman compared her to the man from the Dos Equis beer commercials, “The Most Interesting Man in the World,” because of everything she was involved in.“She was just extremely hospitable,” he said. “Generous, loving. She was a great lady.”Samiy said she wouldn’t have come back to try out for Miss Huntington Beach again, after failing to earn the title last year, without prodding from Ghione.“She would not let me not do it,” Samiy said with a laugh.
