Nelle Livingston was born in 1882 in Hutchinson, Kansas.  Nelle had two sons, Myrl and Ralph (Teddy).  In 1918 the United States was at war.  Myrl joined the Army and was stationed at Camp Kearney in San Diego.  Nelle took Ralph with her and moved to La Jolla to be near Myrl.  With the help of Ralph, Merle operated the concession at the La Jolla Cove Bath House for about five years,  Soon after their arrival in La Jolla, her son Teddy joined the Navy. When the war ended Teddy was discharged as was his brother from the Army and Nelle continued operating the Bath House with the boys’ assistance.  She leased and ran the Bath House until the community deemed it had become a community eyesore.  It was demolished in 1924 and Nelle moved to Northern California.  Approximately four years later found her back in Southern California in Solana Beach.  Meanwhile, Teddy’s marriage had failed, he left La Jolla to join his mother and they opened a cafe along Highway 101 in Solana Beach. They called it the Teddy Bear.

The name Teddy was taken from the nickname Ralph had as a baby. He was born during the peak of Teddy Roosevelt’s popularity as a hero in the Spanish-American war and later as President of the U.S.  In the photo above, the lady standing between the two gas pumps with an unknown man is Nelle.  The building was a remodeled residence with the cafe in the front and a living quarters in the back. Nelle and son Ted operated the Teddy Bear 24 hours a day, hiring help only during busy summer months.

They opened the café with $30 cash, lots of credit and one of their Dodge cars given to their landlord for a period of free rent.
 
Nelle was a good cook and she taught Ted well. They made a go of it even through the economic depression following the disastrous market crash in 1929. One of the secrets of their success was her homemade potato salad. Hamburgers in that era were selling for 10 cents. Nelle and Ted charged 15 cents, but instead of serving the hamburger with chips, they served it with a large scoop of Nelle’s delicious potato salad.  They also made a killer chili and beans. It used the dark red dried peppers from nearby Eden Gardens and those peppers were ground up in the chili.

 Nelle’s eldest son, Myrl, died young in 1938 at the age of 40. This was quite a blow to her and she never seemed to regain her old drive and stamina. She was also a heavy smoker. Two years later, in 1940, she died of cardiac arrest at Scripps Hospital in La Jolla.  Nelle was 58 years old.
 
When the U.S. entered World War II in 1941 the Teddy Bear struggled. Even with the economic boom it was difficult because the cafe depended on highway traffic and it couldn’t survive on local business alone. Travel became curtailed because of wartime restrictions, particularly gasoline rationing.  Ultimately, they had to close the Teddy Bear and Ted operated a produce business in another building on the site. Sometime later the original Teddy Bear building burned down.